Galatians 5.22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …”
The eighth fruit of the Spirit is “gentleness.” Some translations call it “meekness.” Neither of these words do justice to the depth of what it means. The Greek word is prautes, which carries the sense of “strength under control.” It’s the idea of perfectly combining strength and gentleness. It is strength properly focused and directed.
A good analogy would be “the sword in its sheath.” The sword represents strength, skill, and power; the sheath represents self-control and self-discipline. The Spirit gives us enormous strength, but also provides the discipline necessary to focus and control that strength. We will look at this in detail with the last fruit of the Spirit: self-discipline.
The bible sees prautes as the condition of being calm, self-controlled, focused, and wise. It is an essential spiritual discipline; it equips and empowers you to see and respond effectively to virtually any situation. It is the key discipline for applying E+R=O.
The history of this word is fascinating. Praus was a Greek military term was used to define a horse trained for battle. Wild stallions were brought down from the mountains and broken for riding. Some were used to pull wagons, some were raced, and the best were trained for warfare. They retained their fierce spirit, courage, and power, but were disciplined to respond to the slightest nudge or pressure of the rider’s leg. They could gallop into battle at 35 miles per hour and come to a sliding stop at a word. They were not frightened by arrows, spears, or torches. Once trained, they were said to be prautes.
As centuries went by the secret of training such animals was passed from the Greeks to the Roman legions, then to the Moors, the Spanish conquistadors, and finally the Austrian Empire. We see a few war horse descendants today in the Lippizanner horses of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.
To be prautes was to be taken from a state of wild rebellion and trained to be focused, disciplined, calm, and highly effective. It is also to be taken from an atmosphere of fearfulness and made unflinching in the presence of danger. Some war horses dove from ravines into rivers in pursuit of their quarry. Some charged into the face of exploding cannons as Lord Tennyson wrote in his famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” These stallions embodied strength properly directed. They embodied power under control.
What a powerful picture of authentic life in Christ! God calls us and takes us from a state of wild rebellion (our old nature) and seeks to train us to be disciplined, focused, calm, and highly effective (our new nature). He seeks to move us from fear to faith; he seeks to build courage into our hearts so that we are unflinching in the presence of difficulties and danger.
But note again that this requires training. Prautes does not happen automatically; it is a key discipline, a spiritual virtue, that we must build into our lives. In order to be prautes, we must walk in the Spirit and be fully engaged in the process of spiritual growth and skill-building. Like the wild stallions from the mountains, we must be trained. As always, the strength to do this comes from the Lord; it is not self-generated. It is of the Spirit. But we must act. We must do the work.
The value of building prautes into our lives is immeasurable. However, it is with great sadness that I observe many Christians who are saved, but not trained. They are not prautes because they have not committed to the process of building it into their lives. As a result, they lack focus and discipline. They are not strong. They are spiritually and emotionally fragile. In the face of danger they flinch. Therefore, they are not warrior-stallions. They can pull wagons, but they are of very little use in battle.
Do not let this happen to you. Walk by faith and submit to the training of the Spirit; trust God and do the work; build the virtue and discipline of prautes into your life.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil n the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6.10-13)
