Article January 17, 1976 Issue

The Meek Do Want It

SALLIE D. MOORE

A car bumper sticker displayed the slogan, The meek don't want it, referring presumably to the third beatitude, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."^{Matt. 5:5;}

Who are the meek, and why did Jesus say that they would inherit the earth? The word meek has often been misunderstood. As used in the Bible it does not indicate servility or spinelessness, but humble and trustful reliance on God. Meekness implies a lack of vanity or egotism. The meek look to the one divine source of all power, wisdom, and understanding, instead of depending on themselves alone. They recognize that God has made man to reflect His power and glory and that nothing can deprive them of this infinite capacity.

How dismal, how hopeless, would be our outlook if we trusted only in the mortal sense of self! Such an attitude is rebuked in Galatians, where Paul writes, "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."^{Gal. 6:3;} Christian Science maintains that man has no real existence except as the image of God. We are masters of our own fate only as we recognize God's creation and control of the universe and all it contains.