Blessed are the poor in spirit …

Jesus taught many things in His lifetime. Today’s article is a look at one of them, Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This verse is the first of eight verses in what is known as “The Beatitudes” in Matthew 5. The English word, beatitude, is from the Latin beatus, meaning “blessed

These beatitudes were extraordinary sayings. The crowds were used to getting a verbal beating by their church leaders and walking away feeling guilty and hopeless. But Jesus begins his sermon with the word blessed. This was different, very different.

The word “blessed” is a very misunderstood word in our culture today. We commonly define a blessing in financial terms. If you are healthy, wealthy, perhaps climbing a corporate ladder, all your kids are smart, and you have no discernable problems, then you might be considered blessed. But what if you aren’t any of those things? What if you are in a wheelchair? What if your kids aren’t perfect? What if you live in an old house built in 1910 with the foundation falling apart? Can you have a pile of problems or be poor and still be blessed? Has our culture somehow missed what Jesus is trying to tell us?

The word, “blessed” in the context of Matthew 5, is deeper than the way we usually use it. It is sometimes translated “happy” but that doesn’t do the original text justice. Happiness often depends on circumstances. This is deeper. This is an inner satisfaction that doesn’t depend on outward circumstances.

The beatitudes are not a “to-do” list. They are a “to-be” list. The beatitudes describe how you will live as the children of God. We don’t follow the Beatitudes to try to earn God’s love, we live out these Beatitudes because we already are being loved by God.

The Beatitudes show us the depth of our hopelessness and of our need for Jesus. We can’t come near to this standard on our own. Only through a surrendered life in which the Holy Spirit empowers us can we begin to live as citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom. When we live these beatitudes out, the world will have a preview of what Christ’s coming Kingdom will be like. Our conduct flows out of our character. Our behavior flows out of our beliefs. Our character flows out of our love for Him.

Our culture does not do well with the idea of character. Most people have the idea that it’s okay to have a public character and a private character. There is a complete lack of integrity.

Our culture tends to look on the outside, your accomplishments and your possessions. But what we really need is to look on the inside. These inner values focus on character and relationships. Jesus described the church leaders in his day as whitewashed tombs: white on the outside, full of death on the inside. How descriptive is that?

The first Beatitude is the foundation on which all the other Beatitudes rest. … Jesus sat down, looked around at the disciples and the crowd, and said, [3] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3.

Jesus began his sermon by making the startling announcement that the “poor in Spirit” are those who will be blessed and will be part of the Kingdom. What does this mean? Who are the poor in spirit? “Poor in spirit is not a false humility, not an inferiority complex, and not material poverty. You can live in poverty but not be poor in spirit. You can be very wealthy and still be poor in spirit, although Jesus says this is extremely difficult to do. “Poor in spirit,” is not a function of your pocketbook.

Jesus does not use the word for financial poverty. The word Jesus uses has the idea of absolute and abject destitution. He is describing a person that has absolutely nothing and is totally dependent on God. He puts to death the whole idea of self-sufficiency before a Holy and Righteous God. It is the complete absence of pride, self-assurance, and self-reliance. It is a deep humility that leads to authenticity. You might translate it, “Blessed are the spiritually destitute, who are utterly desperate, who need God to come through for them in order to meet their spiritual, emotional, and material needs, otherwise they are lost, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus came to preach that people must declare spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is to the spiritual beggars that Jesus bestows a blessing. The Kingdom of Heaven is offered to those who are so poor spiritually that they know that they have nothing to offer. No wonder the tax collectors and the sinners loved Jesus! This is good news!

If you ask people how you get to heaven, most people in today’s culture might say, “you have to be “good.” But, “just how good is good enough?” Jesus blew his listeners away by making this comparison: Look at Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

These people were supposedly the Godliest people in the whole culture. Just a few verses later, He makes His point painfully clear, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

Just how are you supposed to do that? It is simple, you can’t. You can’t do it in your own strength. It is only through faith in the sacrifice that Jesus made of His life for yours that we can ever stand before God and expect to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Believe in Him today and the kingdom is yours as well.

Non-Christians will not act like Christians. They can’t. They are spiritually dead. Christians cannot put their spiritual expectations on them. It’s not fair and it doesn’t work.

By Greg Snell,

Pastor First Baptist Church, Saratoga