Blessed are the poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5v3


Now we come to Matthew’s version of what is normally referred to as ‘The Beatitudes.’ There is a lot of theological debate about exactly who this is for and when it should be applied. Instead of going into all that I just want to apply the principles Jesus gave as He spoke to the multitudes on the hillside.

Jesus prefaces each statement with ‘blessed are.’ From what I understand of this word it refers to an ‘inner blessedness’ and the word ‘happy’ comes pretty close to accurately translating the word for our English today.

Jesus starts first with ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

Who are these poor in spirit? James gives us a hint when he writes about the poor of this world who are rich in faith. The poor in spirit are people who are the opposite of those who are high and mighty and rich and powerful. They are the weak and foolish that Paul writes about in his letter to the church in Corinth.

Why are these people blessed? For one thing this is the people who make up the kingdom of heaven. Secondly. they have the blessedness that comes from knowing that our peace and contentment is there for us no matter what the circumstances.

True blessedness comes not from the stuff we have, but from the One we have.