The Meekness That Preserves

A hard yoke and a hard word can tear a kingdom apart. Rehoboam would not hear the old men who counseled gentleness; he answered roughly, and Israel was divided. Peter teaches the contrary spirit: not threat, not display, not proud speech, but a meek and quiet manner, patient under wrong, eager to bless. The house, the church, and even a nation are preserved not by force of temper but by humility joined to steadfast obedience.

Jeroboam had once fled from wisdom and dwelt in Egypt. As Origen says, “but when he fled from the wise Solomon and went down into Egypt, as one who had fled from the wisdom of God he became connected with Pharaoh, marrying the sister of his wife, and begetting a son who was brought up among the sons of Pharaoh.” To flee wisdom is never freedom; it is bondage under another lord. Rehoboam also despised wisdom, though it stood before him in the counsel of the elders. Thus one man fled wisdom abroad, and another rejected it at home; both became causes of ruin.

So Peter calls us to another path: govern the tongue, seek peace, endure suffering for righteousness, and keep a good conscience. Even outward things—dress, speech, bearing—must be ruled by the hidden man of the heart. Cyprian writes, “but as becomes women professing chastity, with a good conversation. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 Also Peter consents to these same precepts, and says, Let there be in the woman not the outward adorning of array, or gold, or apparel, but the adorning of the heart. 1 Peter 3:3-4” The Lord hears the righteous; therefore let us not answer harshness with harshness, but conquer evil by disciplined goodness.