Proverbs 16:32 - Meaning and Application

This encourages us to value meekness, a gentle spirit, which fits all people well, especially older people (Proverbs 16:31). Meekness means being slow to anger, not quick to lose our temper or eager to resent harm. It means pausing and thinking before passion spills out, so anger does not go past proper limits. We should move so slowly toward anger that we can be quickly stopped and calmed.

Meekness also means ruling our own spirits, our appetites, feelings, and all our inclinations, especially our anger. We must keep anger under control, under the guidance of religion and sound judgment. In that sense, we should be masters of our anger, as God is, who has perfect control over his own power (Nahum 1:3). We should rule our passions, as one might say, like a careful captain rules strong winds.

The person who gains and keeps control over his passions is better than the mighty. He is better than a ruler who takes a city after a long siege or conquers a country after a long war. A greater victory than Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar is here. Conquering ourselves and our unruly passions takes more wisdom, and it needs steadier and more careful management, than winning a battle against an enemy.

This kind of victory is more honorable for a rational person than a brutal one. It harms no one, and no lives or wealth are lost, only sinful desires are put down. It is harder, and therefore more glorious, to stop a rebellion inside ourselves than to turn back an attack from outside. In fact, meekness brings such great gain that through it we are more than conquerors.