Category: Character

In The Beatitudes: The Only Way to Happiness, John MacArthur points out that “Happy are the sad is contrary to everything we know.  The whole structure of our life—the pleasure-madness, the thrill-seeking, and the money, time, and enthusiasm expended in pursuing amusement and entertainment—is an expression of the world’s desire to avoid mourning and sorrow and pain.”

In His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:4), Jesus offers a new approach to life, condemning the laughter and happiness of the world.  He pronounces blessing, happiness, joy, peace, and comfort on those who mourn.

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Jesus used an order for The Beatitudes. This first one constitutes the foundation from which all the other Beatitudes derive. Being poor in spirit is a fundamental characteristic of the Christian and in that sense, all the other characteristics are the result of this primary quality. If you are not poor in spirit, then neither will you mourn for sin. Neither will you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Neither will you be part of the kingdom of God.

Right at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God.  The kingdom is given to the “poor in spirit”—those who acknowledge spiritual bankruptcy before God.

My study of the First Beatitude uses Jennifer Kennedy Dean’s Set Apart, John MacArthur’s The Beatitudes: The Only Way to Happiness, and John Stott’s The Beatitudes: Developing Spiritual Character.

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