The Beatitudes.
Matthew 5:1-12
Introduction to the beatitudes. (Part 1)
Mankind has always valued and exalted the strong, the beautiful, the successful. The happiness of a person has usually been measured by the degree in which one achieves good results or arouses admiration. Conversely, the absence of strength, beauty, riches, success, and the like, is considered a misfortune—a source of frustration, humiliation and suffering. This has always been the prevailing scale of values in “the kingdom of man.”
When Jesus came, He challenged and rejected this earth-bound standard which condemns to hopelessness and frustration the vast majority of mankind. With his “Sermon on the Mount,” he turned upside down this short-sighted value system, and introduces the values of the “Kingdom of God,” the opening set of which is enshrined in “The Beatitudes.”
The beatitudes reveal attitudes of heart and life which God values. The values which God has and which He has designed His Kingdom to work around are very different from the values of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The regenerated Christian is to have the same system of values which God has, for we are to have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).
These values are essential to Christian living. They cannot be compromised and are undebatable truths that drive and direct behavior. They are motivational, giving us the reason why we do things; and they are restrictive, placing boundaries around behavior.
Every man has a value system or a set of values that guide his life. These values are what we are willing to live by and also to die for. For some, their values or morals are ungodly and are not based on the scriptures. For others, they base their lives on Judeo-Christian values or morals. We are not saved by our value system.. The way a person can go to Heaven is by trusting in the Blood of Jesus for the remission of sins. Worldly values include wealth, power, pleasure, revenge, fame, vanity and status. These are the most important things to people who perceive no power or purpose beyond themselves. Worldly values promote jealousies, resentments and conflicts among people in accordance with the purposes of Satan (John 8:44, Acts 5:3, Romans 16:17-20, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:1-3, 4:25-32, 2 Timothy 2:22-26, 1 John 3:8-10).
The values taught in the Bible are the opposite of worldly values:. Christian values promote peace and good-will among people in accordance with the purposes of God. We will never achieve perfection in this life, but those people who strive to obey God often find a sense of joy and peace that no worldly rewards can match!
The Beatitudes provide a comforting vision. There is a place where all the wrongs will be righted. The poor in spirit will inherit God’s Kingdom. Those who mourn will be comforted. The meek will inherit the land. Those who suffer for righteousness will be vindicated. The merciful will be shown mercy. Peacemakers will find peace as God’s children.
This is indeed a powerful vision. It can be understood as future-oriented. As is well known, this reversal seldom happens in this world. In this world the successful are those who “seize the day” or who act aggressively. The meek, lowly and humble often get left behind or, worse, trampled on. From this vantage point, the Beatitudes express what will come in God’s Kingdom, not what can be expected here below.
King David demonstrated value-driven behavior in Psalm 15:1-5
"Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."
Notice that he said the person who enjoys the presence of God and lives a blameless life is the one who “speaks the truth from his heart” (vv. 1-2). Because this person values truth in his heart, his words express truth. Because he values kindness, he “does his neighbor no wrong” (v. 3). Because he values honesty, he “keeps his oath even when it hurts” (v. 4). Because he values justice, he “does not accept a bribe against the innocent” (v. 5).
Believers who are driven by biblical values reap a great benefit from the Lord. David said they “will never be shaken.” Regardless of what may happen around them, they can live with full confidence that the right principles have shaped their values and have guided their decisions. That confidence will give them emotional and spiritual stability. It will enable them to be believers whom God can use for his glory.
God: The Source of All Values
God is accountable to no one, and there is no higher principle to which he must conform. He himself is the absolute of truth, beauty, goodness, love and justice. His perfect character is the essence of what the Bible calls “righteousness.” In a universe without God, what we call “good” would have no ultimate referent.
Habakkuk was a righteous prophet in the Old Testament. He struggled, as we all do from time to time, with the goodness of God in light of the fact that wicked people often prosper. Unlike many of us, however, Habakkuk was wise enough to know that when you have a question or a problem with God, the best thing to do is to go to God directly. So, he cried out, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Habakkuk 1:13).
Habakkuk’s first complaint to God questioned why the Lord was allowing the people of Judah to continue in their wickedness and injustice. When the Lord answered that he was preparing the Babylonians as his weapon of judgment on Judah’s unrighteousness (vv. 5-6), Habakkuk made a more strenuous objection. The Babylonians were even more wicked than the people of Judah; how could God allow such a people to judge his people? God’s response overcame the prophet’s objections, but notice that Habakkuk was confused by an apparent incompatibility between God’s character and God’s actions.
As we look at the progressive revelation of the person of God from Genesis to Revelation, we discover Him to be the immutable foundation upon which moral concepts such as goodness, love and justice are based. As did Habakkuk, Abraham struggled briefly with God, saying, “Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). Paul added, “Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge’” (Romans 3:4; compare Psalm 51:4).
Habakkuk learned that God’s plan for the purification of his people went far beyond what he could understand. Although God’s actions seemed unjust and out of line with the prophet's idea about values, Habakkuk realized that God’s actions were a small part of his larger, and perfect sovereign plan. In the end, Habakkuk says,
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18
Essentially, the prophet is saying that even though he doesn’t understand, he trusts that God’s goodness is unchanging. Habakkuk trusts God, even when things don’t seem to make sense. Habakkuk wanted to understand the way things "are"; he ended up learning about the way God "is."
We may never find a satisfactory answer to the problem of evil and suffering in our world. But when we have a fuller revelation of God, those questions seem to fade away. What we see is such a tiny piece of the puzzle. God is the only one who sees the whole picture.
God’s moral structures and values are built into the created order. The Bible affirms that even those who have not been exposed to God’s law have a conscience – a moral law – within them (Romans 2:14-16). God is not only revealed in nature, but also in the human heart. Our hearts and consciences reveal the fingerprints of a moral God. In fact, when people talk about evil in this world they imply the existence of the God of the Bible, because if there is no God, then the idea of evil is arbitrary. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, so to speak. Even our notions of good and evil come to us because we bear the image of the one who initially determined the categories.
Godly Values for Godly People
As human beings, the crown of God’s creation, God has “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). As such, godly people seek to live by God’s eternal values of truth, beauty, goodness, love and justice, set forth in the biblical record. If we look to the world for our moral values, we will be confused by self-interest, social conditioning and situational ethics. The values of our culture are shallow and subjective, but the moral standards of Scripture reflect God’s absolute and unchanging character. Exodus 20:1-17 shows us the clearest summary of God’s values for his people:
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
God’s moral law for his people is an expression of his own changeless perfection. In the Ten Commandments, God is actually calling his covenant people to be like him. “I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45).
The Ten Commandments begin with our demonstrated relationship with God and end with our relationships with others. In Scripture, righteousness is always realized within the context of relationships; it consistently relates to loving behavior toward God and others. “Love does no harm to its neighbor” (Romans 13:10). “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Romans 13:9).
It is one thing to know the right things to do and another to consistently do them. Jesus called us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), but this is unattainable apart from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The beatitudes are the higher values and represent the very character of God. Pay close attention to what Jesus says about what the Father values because that is what He blesses. God is revealing His value system in the beatitudes. This system is different from the world's and if we want His blessings, we must put ourselves in a position to receive them by living by His values not the world's.
In Proverbs 2 it says,, “My children, listen to what I say and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom and concentrate on understanding”. So, I am going to ask you to do just that. Tune into what is being said. How? By tuning out everything else. There are 3 voices that are claiming our attention:
(a) The voice of God - Psalm 2: 4-12,
(b) Our voices - Psalm 2: 1-3 and
(c) The voice of Satan and his demons - Matt. 4: 8-10.
When we hear God and only God we will start to understand how God speaks to us. We will then be able to understand that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Jesus says we shall be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. It is at this point that God confronts us with His standards. We are to cultivate the beatitudes into our heart so they become the very fragrance of our lives. That is to say the love for purity, meekness, righteousness, and poor in spirit which is the lifestyle of God. In 2 Cor. 2:15 it says “our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God”. We are only the fragrance of Christ to the degree that we cultivate values of God.
Jesus’ purpose on earth included introducing people to a more accurate image of God and His kingdom. Jesus frequently made such statements as, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” He also used analogies to present images of the kingdom: “the kingdom of God is like . . . .” He was explaining what the kingdom is, how it works and what its principles are.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used the list of rules they understood, and explained the motivation and process behind the law. Sinful man, separated from God and having a terribly inaccurate concept of God, could only understand and accept specific laws, such as “You shall not murder.” Jesus explained there is much more to it, however. Whereas the law prohibited specific actions, Jesus identified the motivating attitudes to these actions. He moved the focus from the external to the internal.
To understand the motivations behind God’s law is to have a clearer understanding of God Himself. It is God’s nature, rather than His laws, that governs His kingdom. Jesus’ role was to shift the emphasis from God’s edicts to His character. A child has little comprehension of good behavior until he learns that he cannot hit somebody for doing something he does not like. The law must precede character development.
The law brought man to a point of impossibility: “How can I possibly observe all these rules? I can’t do it!” At the right time, Jesus introduced God’s nature: “If you change your character to be like God’s, you can easily obey these rules. Better yet, the rules will no longer be necessary.” That is the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount: to shift the emphasis from obedience to character, from a list of rules to attitudes. God knows that attitudes determine actions. If someone were to control their behavior without changing their attitude, the results would be both temporary and frustrating. If instead they corrected their attitude, then correct behavior would immediately follow. We can see this emphasis on attitudes in Jesus’ teaching.
One of the most convincing descriptions of the meaning of the beatitudes at the beginning of the sermon of the mount is that they are echoes of Isaiah 61:1-3, a passage which is certainly eschatological in its orientation. Matthew constantly shows Jesus in the light of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. So as we study the beatitudes we will have to look at Isaiah’s prediction of what the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom will be like.
The Beatitudes are not multiple choices. We cannot choose to regard some and disregard others - they must be conformed to as a whole for us to inherit the Kingdom of God. They show what Christians should be like as followers of Christ. Each Beatitude tells Christians how to be blessed.
The Definition of Blessing
I believe it is appropriate to discuss one very important aspect of this passage. What does “blessed” mean? But what does it mean to be blessed?
The world may use the word “blessed” to indicate someone who is prosperous or doing well. These people may consider themselves fortunate and may use such a word interchangeably without any hint of God in mind. However, for the most part (out of the 50 times it is used in the NT) the Scripture uses the word in a completely different way. The truly blessed person has an eternal prosperity to set his hope upon.
Let us see he meaning of the word "blessed" from the :
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Beatitudes (an extract)
"Condition or statement of blessedness. In the Latin of the Vulgate," beatus," the word for blessed, happy, or fortunate, begins certain verses such as Psalm 1:1: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked."
Old Testament beatitudes, found most frequently in the psalms (e.g., 2:12 ; 32:2 ; 40:4 ; 41:1 ; 65:4 ; 84:4-5 ; 106:3 ; 112:1 ; 128:1 ), are also located in Proverbs 8:32; Isaiah 32:20; 56:2; and Daniel 12:12. The plural proper noun, the Beatitudes, is the common designation for Matthew 5:3-10. Luke's parallel 6:20b-26 , with four statements of blessedness and four maledictions, is called the Beatitudes and Woes. Statements of blessing are also found in Matthew 13:16; John 20:29; and Revelation 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14.
The classical New Testament beatitude has three parts:
(1) the adjective "blessed";
(2) the identification of the "blessed" person(s) by a descriptive clause or participle; and
(3) the condition assuring "blessedness."
Thus in Matthew's first beatitude ( 5:3 ), "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, " the "blessed" persons are identified as the "poor in spirit" and are "blessed" because "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." As the first word in the psalms (1:1), "blessed" is applied generally to all those within God's redemptive covenant established with Abraham. The believer praying Psalm 1:1 becomes the beatitude's subject. His blessedness comes within his relationship to God in which he accomplishes the divine will and keeps himself separate from God's enemies (1:1-2). The Law, God's written revelation, is his constant occupation (v. 2).
Unbelievers are destined to destruction (vv. 4-6), but the "blessed" is promised life with God (v. 3). Psalm 32 sees the "blessed" as one "whose trans-gressions are forgiven" and "whose sin the Lord does not count against him." The sinner's iniquity is imputed by God to the Suffering Servant ( Isa 53:6 ).
The concept of blessedness is not easily translated into English. "Happy, " "fortunate, " and "favored" have all been offered as less than completely satisfactory translations. "Happy" focuses narrowly on emotional well-being, not taking into account that within relationship to God sin is confessed ( Psalm 32:3-5 ). "Fortunate" is derived from the Latin word for chance or luck and was used also for the Roman goddess who determined arbitrarily and capriciously each person's destiny. It still means a haphazard random selection, success, collective possessions and wealth, not given others. Since the poor ( Luke 6:20 ), those who confess sin ( Psalm 32:3-5 ), and the dead ( Rev 14:13 ) are subjects of the beatitudes, "happy" and "fortunate" seem inappropriate. Favor is the Latin word for grace; to avoid confusion "favored" should not be used. "Blessed" should be used in all cases, so that the English reader will recognize that these passages are related as beatitudes.
Blessedness should not be seen as a reward for religious accomplishments, but as an act of God's grace in believers' lives. Rather than congratulating them on spiritual or moral achievements, the beatitude underscores the fact that sinners stand within a forgiving relationship made possible by Christ's atonement."
So when Jesus says “blessed are they,” He is not only describing them as being filled with an inner sense of joy and peace because they are right with God, but He is praising them for their character and pledging divine rewards for it.
God expects His children to submit to His Word. Living it can only produce good fruit.
This will be the topic in Part 2 - Introduction to the Beatitudes.
