Matthew 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The beatitudes describe the character of the kind of people who belong to Jesus Christ. These beatitude descriptions transcend denominational lines. They describe the person who is blessed in the truest sense of the word. These are not the people that you are apt to see on the covers of GQ or SELF magazines. These are the description of the people whose names are written in glory. They are the people who are looking and longing for that city whose builder and maker is God.
The Amplified Bible translation of this first beatitude reads Ike this: Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! Read that description of the person who God says is blessed! The truly blessed person is the person who is rich in the benefits of God’s grace, regardless of their present, outward condition. In other words, blessedness is a matter of ones relationship with God, apart from material goods. The blessed person is the person who recognizes their complete spiritual bankruptcy before God. The materially prosperous person rarely sees themselves in such a condition. Listen to what Jesus said to the self-righteous church people in Laodecia, For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Their material abundance blinded them from seeing their true spiritual condition.
Remember Jesus teaching about true humility in His sight in LUKE 18? He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Who is the blessed person that God dwells with? For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. May the grace of God enable writer and reader alike to be such people for the glory of The Lord Jesus Christ.
