Daily Devotional

July 29

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Jesus was meek, and lowly in heart

Look at the portrait of Stephen and you will see this text [Matthew 5:5] illustrated. Look at it in the case of Paul, that mighty man of God. Consider what he suffered at the hands of these different churches and at the hands of his own countrymen and various other people. As you read his letters you will see this quality of meekness coming out, and especially as he writes to the members of the church at Corinth who had been saying such unkind and disparaging things about him. It is again a wonderful example of meekness.

But of course we must come to the supreme example, and stand and look at our Lord Himself. ‘Come unto me’, He said, ‘all ye that labour ... and I will give you rest... I am meek and lowly in heart.’ You see it in the whole of His life. You see it in His reaction to other people, you see it especially in the way He suffered persecution and scorn, sarcasm and derision. Rightly was it said of Him, ‘A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench’.
His attitude towards His enemies, but perhaps still more His utter submission to His Father, show His meekness. He said, ‘The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, and ‘the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works’. Look at Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Look at the portrait of Him which we find in Philippians 2 where Paul tells us that He did not regard His equality with God as a prerogative at which to clutch or something to hold on to at all costs. No, He decided to five as a Man, and He did. He humbled Himself, became as a servant and even went to the death on the cross. That is meekness; that is lowliness; that is true humility; that is the quality which He himself is teaching at this point.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 66–7

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”