Gentle Boldness
The paradoxical proposal of 2 Timothy 1:7
God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
~ 2 Timothy 1:7
There is a prevailing characteristic among the early witnesses to the gospel in the book of Acts; one that is all the more remarkable given their history of quivering faith and cowardly denials. That characteristic is boldness.
In the book of Acts alone it comes up nearly a dozen times. Their opponents are stunned by the boldness of Peter and John, astonished that they were “uneducated, common men” (4.13). One of the early signs of Saul’s conversion is how he preaches “boldly in the name of the Lord” (9.28). And the last word of the book declares that Paul was “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” (28.31).
Boldness befits the witness to the Word. Jesus has set us free for an “uncalculating” faith that confidently confesses the good news to the world without worrying about opinion polls. But that boldness, taken by itself, can devolve into braggadocio or even abrasiveness if it is not joined with another biblical virtue: gentleness.
Gentle and Lowly in Heart
The Apostle Peter speaks to the boldness required for Christian witness: “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3.15). Don’t shrink back! Take a stand for the Lord! But Peter doesn’t stop there: “Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (3.16). Your boldness must be met with gentleness.
The Apostle Paul, that bulwark of boldness, makes a similar point: “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2.24-25). And again, writing to the Galatians: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6.1).
The Christian call to uncalculating faith that boldly confesses Christ is neither an invitation to run roughshod over others nor a license to dispense with mercy. Instead, as Paul famously wrote, we “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4.15). Or as I might put it somewhat paradoxically, Christians practice gentle boldness.
Gentle boldness originates in our Savior, who is not only dauntless before diabolical designs but also “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11.29). The Christ who meekly washed His disciples feet also drove out the money-changers with a whip that, MacGyver-style, He made himself. He neither suffers prideful fools nor breaks bruised reeds.
The Christian call to uncalculating faith that boldly confesses Christ is neither an invitation to run roughshod over others nor a license to dispense with mercy.
A Picture of Gentle Boldness
When I think of what this gentle boldness looks like among God’s people, I think of a man whom I once had the privilege to meet: the late Rev. Israel Isidor, former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran in Haiti.
The founder of the Children of Israel orphanage in southwest Haiti, Pastor Israel was a tireless and intrepid preacher of the gospel. He could rebuke a Voodoo priest like an Old Testament prophet and then stoop down to share a story of Jesus with some little ones. He would call out unjust extortion perpetrated by some government stooge, and then speak words of forgiveness to the same man. He held together these two characteristics of gentleness and boldness with uncharacteristic ease and grace.
One of Pastor Israel’s favorite verses was 2 Timothy 1.7: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” Or, you might say, He gave us a spirit of gentle boldness.
To be sure, it’s easier to emphasize only one or the other; easier, I say, but not more faithful to the call of Jesus. For in boldly bearing witness to the truth of Christ in a gentle spirit of charity we follow in the footsteps of our Savior, who held together the unflinching demands of the law with the unsurpassed grace of the gospel, who wielded both the whip and the towel, who not only spoke the truth but who suffered for those who would not receive it.