The Beatitudes - Part 1
Scripture
Read Matthew
5:1-5
The poor is
spirit
Poor in spirit
does not mean spiritual weakness. In fact, it is a matter of
attitude that people would have a spirit of poorness as the world
sees it. The world says, “Look at that poor Christian, wasting
their time and money on a church. They’re all just a bunch of
hypocrites anyway.”
Where the
world sees bankruptcy in the cross, the Christian sees all the
riches of the world. The riches of the Christian is hidden to the
rest of the world as they do not understand. But we store up
treasures in heaven while the world’s wealth is destroyed in a
fleeting moment in midst of eternity.
How do you store
up treasures in heaven?
Those who
mourn
In today’s
world, mourning or any other show of emotion can be seen as a
weakness. God made our emotions and they are not wrong, however, we
need to keep them in check and not let our emotions control us. If
our emotions control us, it is no different than letting alcohol or
drugs control us.
With that
said, a Christian mourns differently than the rest of the world. We
may mourn the loss of a loved one or a difficulty in life and Jesus
will be there alongside of us to comfort us. However, the mourning
Jesus speaks of here is a mourning over sin. In the accounts of the
Bible where we see Jesus weep, there is a lack of faith or
rejection. Jesus weeps over such a thing as should we.
What other
spiritual things cause you to weep?
The meek
The strongest
hold power over the world today. They do so by political
connections, military might, extortion, murder, and numerous other
ways. There is no place for the weak in leadership. Yet God
promises that it is the meek that will one day inherit the earth
while those who have walked over the backs of others to gain their
power will have been removed.
The meek have
turned the other cheek when struck and not sought out personal
vengeance. They recognize that God is the ultimate judge and will
leave justice to him when those in power will not protect them.
This does not mean that they do not stand for justice in the world
however. The popular phrase “An eye for an eye makes the whole
world blind” should not be the calling phrase of the meek.
God has set
governments in place and has given them the authority to exercise
judgment and punishment for crimes. We should support our
governments ability to punish those who do wrong. When those in
leadership fail to take a stand for our rights, whether it be the
high school principal or the Supreme Court, we should not seek
justice on our own or take to personal vengeance. When leadership
fails, the guilty party will not escape God’s justice, even if they
escape man’s.
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