'How To' Instructions in Righteousness
Lesson 10: Be poor of spirit...
Key verses: Matthew
5:3-12
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall
be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the
children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be
exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.
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| "Blessed": The word
"blessed" means "happy," referring to that which produces felicity
(bliss), from whatever quarter it may come. |
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| Verse 3
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Poor in spirit. Opposite of proud in spirit. Those who have recognized their poverty in spiritual things and have allowed Christ to meet their need have become heirs of the kingdom of heaven. 4,5. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) To be poor in spirit is to have a humble opinion of ourselves; to be sensible that we are sinners, and have no righteousness of our own; to be willing to be saved only by the rich grace and mercy of God; to be willing to be where God places us, to bear what he lays on us, to go where he bids us, and to die when he commands; to be willing to be in his hands, and to feel that we deserve no favor from him. It is opposed to pride, and vanity, and ambition. Such are happy. (from Barnes' Notes) More on "Poor in Spirit" click here |
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| Verse 4
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall
be comforted. A sense of anguish for sin characterizes the blessed man. But genuine repentance will bring comfort to the believer. Since Christ bore the sins of every man, the comfort of full forgiveness is readily available (1 John 1:9). (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) That is, those who, feeling their spiritual poverty, mourn after God, lamenting the iniquity that separated them from the fountain of blessedness. Everyone flies from sorrow, and seeks after joy, and yet true joy must necessarily be the fruit of sorrow. The whole need not (do not feel the need of) the physician, but they that are sick do; i.e. they who are sensible of their disease. Only such persons as are deeply convinced of the sinfulness of sin, feel the plague of their own heart, and turn with disgust from all worldly consolations, because of their insufficiency to render them happy, have God's promise of solid comfort. They SHALL BE comforted, says Christ, parakleetheesontai (NT:3870), from para (NT:3844), near, and kaleoo (NT:2564), I call: He will call them to himself, and speak the words of pardon, peace, and life eternal, to their hearts. (taken from Adam Clarke's Commentary) |
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| Verse 5
Blessed are the meek: for they shall
inherit the earth. Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries. It is neither meanness nor a surrender of our rights, nor cowardice; but it is the opposite of sudden anger, of malice, of long-harbored vengeance. Meekness is the reception of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate us. "Vengeance is his; he will repay," Rom 12:19. Meekness produces peace. (from Barnes' Notes) The source of this meekness is Christ (Matt 11:28-29), who bestows it when men submit their wills to his. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) More on "Meekness" click here |
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| Verse 6
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled. Hunger and thirst, here, are expressive of strong desire. Nothing would better express the strong desire which we ought to feel to obtain righteousness than hunger and thirst. No needs are so keen, none so imperiously demand supply, as these. They occur daily, and when long continued, as in case of those shipwrecked, and doomed to wander months or years over burning sands, with scarcely any drink or food, nothing is more distressing. An ardent desire for anything is often represented in the Scriptures by hunger and thirst, Ps 42:1-2; 63:1-2. A desire for the blessings of pardon and peace; a deep sense of sin, and want, and wretchedness, is also represented by thirsting, Isa 55:1-2. (from Barnes' Notes) When the soul is awakened to a sense of its wants, and begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness or holiness, which is its proper food, we know that it must be purified by the Holy Spirit, and be made a partaker of that living bread, John 8:48, or perish everlastingly. Now, as God never inspires a prayer but with a design to answer it, he who hungers and thirsts after the full salvation of God, may depend on being speedily and effectually blessed or satisfied, well-fed, as the word chortastheesontai (NT:5526) implies. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) A deep passion for personal righteousness. Such desire is evidence of dissatisfaction with present spiritual attainment. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) |
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| Verse 7
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy. That is, those who are so affected by the sufferings of others as to be disposed to alleviate them. Nowhere do we imitate God more than in showing mercy. In nothing does God delight more than in the exercise of mercy, Ex 34:6; Ezek 33:11; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9. To us, guilty sinners; to us, wretched, dying, and exposed to eternal woe, he has shown his mercy by giving his Son to die for us; by expressing his willingness to pardon and save us; and by sending his Spirit to renew and sanctify our hearts. (from Barnes' Notes) This virtue, therefore, is no other than a lively emotion of the heart, which is excited by the discovery of any creature's misery; and such an emotion as manifests itself outwardly, by effects suited to its nature. The merciful man is here termed by our Lord, eleeemoon (NT:1655), from eleos (NT:1656), which is generally derived from the Hebrew chiyl (OT:2427), to be in pain, as a woman in travail: or from chuwl (OT:2342), to writhe in pain grievously; because a merciful man enters into the miseries of his neighbour, feels for and mourns with him. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) Those who put pity into action can expect similar mercy both from men and God. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) |
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| Verse 8
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they
shall see God. That is, whose minds, motives, and principles are pure; who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire to be holy in heart, and who are so. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. (from Barnes' Notes) Christ here shows that a purification of the heart, from all vile affections and desires, is essentially requisite in order to enter into the kingdom of God. He whose soul is not delivered from all sin, through the blood of the covenant, can have no Scriptural hope of ever being with God. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) Those whose moral being is free from contamination with sin, without divided interests or loyalties. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) |
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| Verse 9
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall
be called the children of God. Those who strive to prevent contention, strife, and war; who use their influence to reconcile opposing parties, and to prevent lawsuits and hostilities in families and neighborhoods. Every man may do something of this; and no man is more like God than he who does it. (from Barnes' Notes) As all men are represented to be in a state of hostility to God and each other, the Gospel is called the Gospel of peace, because it tends to reconcile men to God and to each other. Hence, our Lord here terms peace-makers, the children of God: for as he is the Father of peace, those who promote it are reputed his children. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) As God is "the God of peace" (Heb 13:20) and Christ is "Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6), so peacemakers in the Kingdom will be recognized as partaking of God's nature, and will be properly honored. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) |
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| Verse 10 Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. To persecute means literally to pursue; follow after, as one does a flying enemy. Here it means to vex, or oppress one, on account of his religion. They persecute others who injure their names, reputation, property, or who endanger or take their life, on account of their religious opinions. (from Barnes' Notes) They are happy who suffer, seems a strange saying: and that the righteous should suffer, merely because they are such, seems as strange. But such is the enmity of the human heart to everything of God and goodness, that all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution in one form or other. As the religion of Christ gives no quarter to vice, so the vicious will give no quarter to this religion, or to its professors. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) |
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| Verse 11-12
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward
in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Reproach you; call you by evil and contemptuous names; ridicule you because you are Christians. Thus, they said of Jesus that he was a Samaritan and had a devil (John 8:48); that he was mad (John 10:20); and thus they reviled and mocked him on the cross, Matt 27:39-44. But, being reviled, he reviled not again (1 Peter 2:23); and thus being reviled, we should bless (1 Cor 4:12); and thus, though the contempt of the world is not in itself desirable, yet it is blessed to tread in the footsteps of Jesus, to imitate his example, and even to suffer for his sake, Phil 1:29. [All manner of evil against you falsely] An emphasis should be laid on the word falsely in this passage. It is not blessed to have evil spoken of us if we deserve it; but if we deserve it not, then we should not consider it as a calamity. We should take it patiently, and show how much the Christian, under the consciousness of innocence, can bear, 1 Pet.3:13-18. (from Barnes' Notes) The persecution mentioned in the preceding verse comprehends all outward acts of violence-all that the hand can do. This comprehends all calumny, slander, etc., all that the tongue can effect. But as diookein (NT:1377), which we render to persecute, is a forensic term, and signifies legal persecutions and public accusations, which, though totally unsubstantiated, were the means of destroying multitudes of the primitive Christians, our Lord probably refers to such. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary) |
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Lesson 10:
Instructions –
Be poor of spirit...
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