“The beatitudes:
Revealing Christian character and development”
Part 1: The Poor in Spirit
Our Savior and Lord, Jesus, has a way of simplifying the most complex truths. This shouldn’t surprise us since He is the ‘simplification of God’.[1] As God in the flesh, Jesus demonstrates God’s character. We come to know God and God’s character by getting to know Jesus. To know Jesus is to know God.
In Matthew 5:1-12, Jesus teaches in this tradition of simplifying complex truths. In His masterful way, Jesus condenses the totality of Christian character and how this character is developed into 9 beatitudes. For the next 8 months, we’ll study these beatitudes and discern what type of character God wants to develop within us.
Before we move on to the first beatitude, I would like for you to stop, open your Bible and read all the beatitudes at once (Matthew 5:1-12). You may even want to read them out loud. This will give you a familiarity and a sense of how they all flow together.
Now that you read all 9 of the beatitudes, there are two observations I would like to make. First, each beatitude begins with the word ‘blessed’. This comes from the Greek word makarios. It means to be happy or especially favored (blessed). So, if we develop these 9 characteristics we will have a joyful life and be especially favored by God. We’ll have an intimate relationship with God. This is what God intends for us. It’s what’s best for us.
The second observation is that each beatitude leads to the next beatitude. To put it another way, each beatitude is built upon the previous ones. Being ‘poor in spirit’ naturally leads to ‘mourning’ and ‘mourning’ naturally leads to ‘meekness’ and so on and so forth. In this way, the beatitudes provide us a process or way of salvation. For an overview of this process, refer to the charts at the end of this article.
This process or way of salvation takes us closer and closer to being perfect like our Heavenly Father (Matthew 5:48). The more these beatitudes are developed within our hearts, the more like Christ we become. This process is also how we become free from the hurts, hang-ups and habits that ensnare and keep us from being the people God created us to be. Let’s begin to explore this wonderful God given process by studying the first beatitude.
The first beatitude states, “"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So, what does it mean to be ‘poor in spirit’? To answer this question, I’ll describe how I went from being ‘rich in the spirit’ to being ‘poor in the spirit’. This should give you a better understanding of what it means to be ‘poor in the spirit’.
As a teen-ager and young adult, I had a lot of confidence in myself. In high school I maintained a high degree of physical fitness as a swimmer and wrestler. There was no doubt in my mind I was tougher than most people I knew, especially the football players. I could also hold my own intellectually. I made decent grades, took some AP courses and won a few tournaments as a member of the speech/debate team. In addition to all this, I obtained my Eagle rank in Boy Scouts and was active in the Civil Air Patrol. During my senior year in high school I gained admittance to Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and received a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corp (NROTC) scholarship (Marine Option). I believed I could succeed in anything I attempted because I was tough, smart and determined. Needless to say I was quite arrogant. I never seriously considered what God expected of me because I thought I could do everything on my own. My main concern was getting what I wanted out of life. I was ‘rich in spirit’.
God, however, loved me enough to guide me to the point of being ‘poor in spirit’. The process began during the summer between my junior and senior year at VMI. That’s when I attended the Marine Corp Officer Basic Course (OBC). Near the beginning of the course, I made some mistakes and had a very bad start with the Drill Instructors. When I realized I was on the verge of flunking out, I prayed to God and asked Him to enable me to pass. God said no. I flunked out of Marine OBC and lost my NROTC scholarship. I had to take a semester off from VMI to apply for loans in order to complete my education. For the first time in my life, I failed to obtain a major personal goal. This is when I started to learn to depend on God rather than myself.
When I returned to VMI I joined the Army ROTC program and became an Army Officer upon graduation. As a young 2nd Lieutenant, I took advantage of an opportunity to attend the U.S. Army Ranger School, one of the toughest leadership schools in the Army. Unlike Marine OBC, I approached Ranger school with trepidation and immediately sought God’s guidance and strength. With God’s intervention, I graduated. God provided just the right people to be at just the right place to enable me to pass all the leadership evaluations. For example, during the first week we had to complete a grueling 15 mile force march in 3 hours. We wore full packs and carried heavy weapons, ammo and equipment. During part of the march, I carried an M-60 machine gun. This very heavy weapon slowed me down considerably. The truck following us was quickly approaching. If it caught up to me, a Ranger Instructor would tell me to climb aboard and that would be the end of Ranger School. As I was slowing down, a huge bear of a Ranger Candidate walked beside me. He took my heavy M-60 machine gun and replaced it with a much lighter M-16 rifle. With that help, I was able to speed up and complete the force march. There are other stories of God providing someone at just the right time to enable me to pass Ranger school.
After Ranger School, I was stationed in Korea. While there, I attended a Sunday night praise service. The chaplain asked me to speak during one of these services. When I spoke, I found myself rededicating my life to Jesus. From that moment on, my relationship with God grew closer and closer.
About a year later, I decided to answer God’s call to the ministry. This happened while stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA. I was praying one night, talking to God about what I should do with the rest of my life. I was deciding if I should stay in the Army, seek another career or pursue the ministry. The moment I told God I would pursue the ministry, an indescribable peace came over me. I knew it was what God wanted me to do.
Sometime during the period from Marine OBC to the point I answered God’s call to the ministry, I went from being ‘rich in the spirit’ to being ‘poor in the spirit’. Along with repenting of my sins and trusting Jesus as Savior, I also began to deny myself and surrender my life to Jesus.
Being ‘poor in the spirit’ is a humility that makes us aware of our sinful nature and our inability to save ourselves. This humility leads us to deny ourselves and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven without this humility.
Sometimes we can be ‘poor in the spirit’ one day and become ‘rich in the spirit’ the next day. When this happens, we need to go to God in prayer and repent. God will get us going in the right direction.
Where are you right now? Are you ‘poor in the spirit’? Are you going from being ‘rich in the spirit’ to ‘poor in the spirit’? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where you are. He’ll show you.
In part two, we’ll explore what it means to ‘mourn’. Until then, may God’s grace keep you secure.
- [1] E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount: A Working Philosophy of Life’, page 27
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