Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
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September 01, 2013 |
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 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Generally, people think that blessings are to be rich, have honor and authority, have peace in their family, and so on. But these cannot be the true and eternal blessing. They can vanish in a moment. We cannot keep them when our lives on the earth end. Of course, we cannot take them to the world of afterlife.
Suppose one enjoyed wealth, honor, and glory throughout his life, but did not believe in the life after death? Such people would not have prepared themselves to enter the eternity of Heaven, and their goal would have been just to eat, drink, and live well, so they would not have had any choice but to fall into the dreadfulness of Hell. Then, what is the use of blessings on the earth?
Matthew chapter 5 talks about the well-known message of Jesus, 'the Beatitudes' that He preached on a mountain side. If you achieve what is spoken about in the Beatitudes, which is about the true blessing that God's children can enjoy, you can enter New Jerusalem. The message on the Beatitudes is an important indicator to check our faith. What then is the first blessing?
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit
What does it mean to be poor in spirit? The poor in this Scripture does not indicate those who are poor in finances, but the poor in spirit, that is, poor in heart. To be poor in spirit means to have good heart without evil, greed or selfishness. That is, you know how to empty yourself without any greed. Thus, the poor in spirit long for spiritual things that satisfy their hearts and they accept the gospel quickly when others try to evangelize them. They also obey the Word of God just it says, so it is easy for them to reach salvation.
However, those who do not believe God with greed for the worldly things are 'rich' in spirit, so they do not seek God and accept the gospel. They make excuses saying they are busy doing their business, studying, and enjoying themselves. They say they will believe when they become more free. Their eyes and hearts are filled with desire for the worldly wealth, honor, and authority, so they do not believe even if the evidences of the living God are revealed, nor will they even try to find God. Therefore, the first door towards the perfect blessing is to become poor in spirit.
2. For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven
In the chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gave a parable of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man clothed well and fared sumptuously every day while he was alive. He was rich in spirit and did not live according to the Word of God. But the beggar named Lazarus was poor in spirit and believed God although he was fed by begging in front of the rich man's door and the dogs came and licked his sores.
But the situation totally exchanged after both of them died. That was because the rich man didn't believe in God but Lazarus believed. While the saved Lazarus was resting peacefully in Abraham's bosom, the rich man suffered in the fire of punishment and cried asking for a drop of water from Lazarus. Was the diseased beggar, Lazarus blessed, or was the rich man who enjoyed parties every day and fared sumptuously every day the blessed one? The result was that the beggar turned out to be the blessed one.
Does it mean that we have to live in poverty like Lazarus in order to go to Heaven? No, it doesn't. It does not mean that we have to live a life like that of beggar, but it means that we have to become 'poor in spirit' to enjoy eternal life because there are surely eternal life and eternal punishment.
God gives blessings of good health, finance, becoming head, and all things' prosperity to His children who become poor in spirit and live in accordance with the Word. Also, He gives true, eternal blessing, that is, Heaven that is incomparable with any wealth and glory.
3. In order to become poor in spirit and possess Heaven
First, we need to cast off the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
In 1 John 2:15-16 say, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." If you have the worldly things in your heart, you need to perfectly fill your heart with the love of God and heavenly hope.
To do so, first, you must get rid of the lust of the flesh. It refers to the nature causing us to commit a sin. When people have the original sinful nature like hatred, anger, greed, adultery, jealousy, arrogance, and so on, the lust of the flesh comes out if those natures meet the proper environmental condition. Say a beginner in faith decided to stop drinking alcohol. But he still has desire to drink and it hasn't been completely gotten rid of yet. So, he also wants to drink when he goes to a drinking party. The lust of the flesh stirs him to have strong desire to drink alcohol and even causes him to drink.
Secondly, you need to separate yourself from the lust of the eyes. It is the nature of the heart that is moved by what you see with the eyes and what you hear with the ears. Even if you see and hear something without making any sense of it, sometimes it can come to your thoughts because you keep it in your heart with feeling. You sometimes want to see, hear, and have them. Suppose a student saw an obscene movie. The scenes continue to come to his mind and disturb his studying. He even wants to watch it again. In this way, the lust of the eyes stimulates the untruth in you and causes the lust of the flesh to come out. Therefore, you must not see nor hear nor think it if it's not the truth. You must not go to places that aren't pleasing God.
Thirdly, you must remove the boastful pride of life. The boastful pride of life is the nature that causes you to boast of yourself following all pleasures of the world. If a man has the pride of life, he boasts of himself, his wealth, authority, talent, good appearance, education, and the like. He neglects others out of arrogance. The heart is far from the poor heart which is of service, sacrifice, and love. Those with the boastful pride of life don't keep the heavenly beauty and hope in their hearts and the worldly things look better and more valuable to them.
Secondly, you must spiritually become like little children.
Matthew 18:3 reads, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven".
Spiritual little children are simple, genuine and not arrogant. They accept others' teaching if they are good and they readily admit their shortcomings when others point them out and give advice to them because they have no pride or stubbornness yet. But if they are stained with the world and their hearts become impure, they will be numb even when they commit sins and they do not admit their shortcomings when others point them out. They sometimes commit sins God hates even after they accepted the Lord and by doing so they are distanced from salvation.
Also, spiritual children react sensitively to goodness and evilness. They are moved and shed tears by things of goodness while they hate evil very much. If God says something is evil they come to hate it from the heart and try to avoid committing sins.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope you will become poor in spirit by discovering evil and casting away sin and evil through fire-like prayer. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will become God-pleasing children, enter a better dwelling place in Heaven, and receive all kinds of blessings including wealth, honor, and good health even on the earth.
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