Power Rightly Ordered

Gentleness is restraint, but one postured toward life.

For me, the word “gentle” most often relates to touch. Like if you’re holding a baby or petting a cat or handling your grandmother’s china. And those things do require a gentleness. But what Paul is getting at is more than careful hands or soft gestures. Gentleness, as Paul names it, is not primarily about delicacy but about direction. It is strength that knows where it is going and, just as importantly, where it refuses to go. Gentleness is power that has been schooled, disciplined, and brought into alignment with the purposes of God. It helps to remember that each of these fruits begins in love.

This is why the story before us today matters so much. In John 8, power is everywhere in the room. The religious leaders hold social and legal authority. The law itself is invoked. Stones are already within reach. The crowd is poised for action. And at the center stands a woman whose life has been reduced to a test case, her body turned into a battleground for someone else’s righteousness.

Jesus does not deny the law, nor does he deny the seriousness of what has occurred. But he refuses to let power be exercised in its most predictable way. Instead of escalating the moment, he lowers himself to the ground and writes in the dust. Can you feel the gentleness in that action? It is a direct action against the tension, slowing everything down. This, too, is gentleness. Rather than avoidance, it is an interruption.

When Jesus finally speaks, his words disarm the situation rather than inflame it. One by one, power dissipates. Violence evaporates, at least for the moment.

Here is gentleness in its clearest form: Jesus holds the authority to judge - more than the crowd even knows - yet he chooses restoration. He has the power to condemn, yet orders that power toward mercy. He does not excuse sin, but neither does he weaponize righteousness. Instead, he creates space for repentance and the possibility of a different future.

This is what it means for power to be rightly ordered. Gentleness is not the absence of conviction, but the refusal to crush. It’s a moral clarity expressed without violence. In Christ, gentleness becomes the way authority serves life rather than destroys it. This is the life the Spirit longs to form in us as well.

Galatians 5:13-26

John 8:1-11

And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he returned to the temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and taught them. The legal experts and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. Placing her in the center of the group, they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?” They said this to test him, because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.

They continued to question him, so he stood up and replied, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” Bending down again, he wrote on the ground. Those who heard him went away, one by one, beginning with the elders. Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?”

She said, “No one, sir.”

Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”

Prayer (adapted from Colossians 1:9-13)

God,

Fill me with the knowledge of your will, not as information to master, but as wisdom that shapes how I live. Give me that spiritual understanding that orders strength toward what is good, true, and life-giving.

Make me strong with your strength. Not a domineering strength that controls, but a strength that endures and is required for temperance toward reactivity. Give me patience, restraint, and gentleness - the kind of power that’s patient enough to wait for the cultivation of life rather than the immediacy of destruction.

Teach me to live a life worthy of Christ, pleasing not in simply appearance but in substance, growing steadily in your presence and learning what it means to love well.

Remind me that you have already done the rescuing from darkness and so bring me into your Kingdom. Keep me rooted there, free to live with the people of mercy, restoration, and hope.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.