Let me say a further word about meekness. The New Testament tells us that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the Devil, against the enemy of God. We must fight against the Devil, God’s enemy, day and night. However, we are not to fight against people, not even against those who oppose us. Toward all men, including the adversaries and opposers, we must be meek. Although we fight Satan and the principalities in the air, we do not fight people. Instead, we love them all. Young people, do not go to the campuses to fight with the students. Never say, “We shall defeat the students and take the earth!” Do not go to the campuses to fight—go there to be meek. We need to be so meek that, even if a persecutor hits us on the right cheek, we would turn to him the left cheek. To be meek means not to resist or to fight back. However, as we turn our left cheek to the persecutor, we should pray, “Lord, bind the powers of darkness!” While we are being meek toward other people, we must fight against the powers of darkness. The enemy is not the people; it is Satan and his angels, the evil powers in the air.
As we are being meek toward others, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness. We ourselves must be right with everyone. We must be right with our parents, our husband or wife, our children, our in-laws, our relatives, and our neighbors. The people of the heavenly kingdom are righteous in this way. Do not think that, if we are mournful and meek, we can afford to be loose. No, we must hunger and thirst for the highest righteousness.
Although we must be strict with ourselves in righteousness, we must learn to be merciful to others and not to place demands on them. It is wrong for any Christian to place demands on others. If you are truly strict with yourself, then you will know how to be merciful to others. But do not try to be merciful to others without first being righteous with yourself. Every sloppy person is merciful to others because he has already been merciful to himself. If he sleeps late every morning, he will be very merciful to others who sleep late. This kind of mercy is not mercy at all; it is absolutely wrong. No one who is sloppy knows how to be merciful to others. Only a strict person, a righteous person, knows how to be merciful. If you would be merciful to others according to the fifth blessing, you must first be righteous toward yourself according to the fourth blessing.
We must be righteous and strict with ourselves, never making excuses for ourselves. But when others offend us, thereby exposing their shortage, we must be merciful toward them. All those who are self-righteous condemn others and never let them go. The word spoken by the Lord on the mount is completely different from this. To ourselves, we must be righteous and strict, serious and sober. But toward others we must be merciful. In Himself God is righteous. However, if He were righteous to the uttermost in dealing with us, we would all be killed. Although God is righteous in relation to Himself, He is full of mercy in dealing with us. As fallen sinners, we surely need God’s mercy. We also must learn to be righteous with ourselves, and merciful toward others. This matter of being righteous toward ourselves and merciful toward others is not firstly a matter of outward behavior; it is firstly a matter of our inward attitude, of our inward being.
As a brother taking the lead, either as an elder in the church or as a brother in the brothers’ house, you may find it difficult to be strict with yourself and yet be merciful toward others. Suppose everyone is supposed to be home by a certain time. To come home later than that time is not righteous. Likewise, it is not right to inconvenience others. However, when some young people come home, they like to throw their shoes anywhere they please. I knew of one co-worker, a preacher and teacher of the Bible, who used to throw his socks without any concern for where they landed around the room. One time this brother and I were guests in a certain home. The hostess, quite concerned, spoke to me about this brother’s sloppiness. What a shame that was to me! Some of the brothers living in the brothers’ houses may act the same way.
Other brothers may be unhappy about being required to wash dishes; therefore, they may not clean them thoroughly. This is not righteous. It is never righteous to take advantage of others, to invade their rights. Not doing an adequate job in washing dishes is taking advantage of others. If you are such a one, you are not a righteous person. If you are a leader in the brothers’ house, you must be strict with yourself about the time, about excessive talking, about noise, about washing dishes, and about many other things. Do not say this is too much. It may seem too much to you, but it is not too much to Christ who lives within you. In everything you do, you must be strict with yourself.
However, as one taking the lead in the brothers’ house or in any aspect of the church life, you must also be merciful. Sometimes a leader may warn a sloppy one about his dishwashing, saying, “This is your first warning about the way you wash the dishes. After two more warnings, you will have to move out.” Remember the word of the Lord Jesus about how many times you must forgive your brother (18:21-22). Even if a certain brother does not clean the dishes thoroughly after you have spoken to him a number of times, you must still be merciful to him. Do not drive away even such a sloppy and pitiful brother. Instead, be merciful to him. This does not mean that you go to the opposite extreme and say, “I have learned that I must be merciful toward this brother. Therefore, from now on, I will never talk to him about the way he does the dishes. Let him do the dishes any way he wants. We’ll just have to tolerate it in order to keep him.” This attitude is not right either. You need to take care of such a sloppy brother day after day. Let him have a turn at washing the dishes. But each time he does so, you must be patient and merciful toward him.
It is easy for us to be either strict or sloppy. But we must learn to be strict on the one hand and merciful on the other. If we give others a strict dealing, we must immediately be merciful toward them. This is an important lesson for elders to learn. The kingdom people are both righteous and merciful. When you are righteous, you must be absolutely righteous; and when you are merciful, you must be very merciful. Although righteousness and mercy are two opposite poles, they must meet in your experience. Your righteousness must come together with your mercy.