The Beatitudes
According to Forbes, there are over 3,000 billionaires in the world. There are around 59 million millionaires. Wow! So many people in our world are so blessed! But here’s some more statistics: Around 280 million people worldwide are depressed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 301 million people worldwide experienced an anxiety disorder in 2019. I’m sure that number even rose after 2020.
What you have doesn’t determine how blessed you are. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving his manifesto for kingdom living. And here’s one thing about his kingdom: it is an upside-down kingdom. What leads to true blessedness is not what the world says does.
To be blessed means to experience the satisfaction of God’s covenant relationship through Jesus Christ.
Jesus means something completely different by “blessed”[1] than what we see in the world around us. Many will translate this word to mean happy. To be blessed means to be approved by God. To have God’s favor. One commentator says it like this: “Since this is God’s universe there can be no higher ‘blessing’ than to be approved by God.”[2] This blessing is a covenant relationship with God. Blessedness is experiencing God’s favor not because of what you’ve done but because of what Christ has done. Being blessed isn’t about your bank account, your health, or your circumstances. It’s about standing before the Creator of the universe and hearing Him say, “You are mine.”
You can be blessed while broke, blessed while battling cancer, blessed while facing persecution. God’s favor isn’t based on what you have but on who you are in Christ. The world measures blessing by what you accumulate. God measures blessing by what you receive through Jesus.
The first four beatitudes reveal our desperate need for God’s grace.
1. We must acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy before God. (3)
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Think of spiritual poverty like financial poverty. A broke person can’t pretend they have money when the bills come due. They can’t fake wealth when the repo man shows up. They know they need help. Spiritual poverty is looking at God’s perfect standard and realizing you’re spiritually bankrupt. D.A. Carson says, “Poverty of spirit is the personal acknowledgment of spiritual bankruptcy. It is the conscious confession of unworth before God.”[3] It’s the tax collector beating his chest and crying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Lk 18:13) It’s standing before a holy God and knowing you have absolutely nothing to offer Him. They had more than one Greek word for poor. There was, in a sense, a “working poor” and a “poor poor,” an abject poverty poor, a has-absolutely-nothing poor. That’s what this one is. This poverty is realizing the only thing we bring to our salvation is our need to be saved. Missionary William Carey, who died in 1834, is buried in India with the epitaph: "A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall".
The opposite of being poor in spirit is spiritual pride, and it’s deadly, especially among religious people. This is the Pharisaical approach. And the church is full of many Pharisees. You think your church attendance impresses God. You think your biblical knowledge earns you points. You think your moral track record puts you ahead of others. You think your correct theological positions has you in better standing with God than your lower, less-learned brothers and sister in Christ. All of that is spiritual wealth that doesn’t exist. It’s like monopoly money in the real world. The truly poor in spirit have stopped trying to impress God with their resume and started crying out for mercy.
2. We are to grieve over sin’s effects in ourselves and the world. (4)
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Poverty of spirit leads to grief over sin. This mourning of grief over sin is like surveying damage after a car accident. You look at the twisted metal and broken glass and you mourn what’s been lost. That’s what happens when you see sin clearly. You mourn what it’s done to you, to relationships, to the world.
This mourning has two modes. First, it’s personal. You grieve your own sin because you see how it offends a holy God. You’re not just sorry you got caught or sorry for the consequences. You’re heartbroken that you’ve rebelled against the One who loves you most. Second, it’s social. You look at injustice in the world and your heart breaks. You see people destroying their lives with bad choices and it hurts. This isn’t being a downer or walking around depressed. It’s seeing clearly while the world lives in denial. The world keeps partying while the ship is sinking. Those who mourn see the iceberg ahead and they see the damage the iceberg has done.
But here’s the beautiful promise: those who mourn will be comforted. God meets grief with grace. He meets sorrow with salvation. When you see sin in your life, let it drive you to Christ. When you see brokenness in the world, let it move you to intercession, evangelism, and action.
3. We should submit to God and show gentleness to others. (5)
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Meekness isn’t weakness. It’s like a trained horse. The animal has incredible power and strength, but it’s been trained to respond to the slightest touch of the reins. All that power is still there, but now it’s channeled and controlled. Meekness is what happens when spiritual poverty and mourning shape how you come before God and how you treat other people. You stop demanding your rights because you realize you don’t deserve anything from God. You stop pushing people around because you remember how gentle God has been with you.
Who do you think was the meekest person to every live? Well, Jesus, of course. But second to Him was Moses. Think about him. Moses led two million people through the wilderness and confronted the most powerful ruler on earth, but the Bible calls him the meekest man on earth (Num 12:3). How? Because he learned his strength came from God, not himself. Think about Jesus. Jesus could have called down legions of angels but chose to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. He could have defended himself before Pilate but remained silent. That’s strength under control. Jesus described himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matt 11:29).
D.A. Carson explains it as, “Meekness is a controlled desire to see the other’s interests advance ahead of one’s own.”[4] It’s choosing not to assert your rights even when you could. It’s trusting God for vindication rather than defending yourself. When someone cuts you off in traffic, when you don’t get credit at work, when family members don’t appreciate what you do, you trust God instead of demanding recognition.
And the meek will “inherit the earth.” I read one commentator say, though the analogy is imperfect, “The meek of England, driven by their native land by religious intolerance, have inherited the continent of America.” There is reward for those who are meek, who live out strength under control. Jesus is likely quoting Psalm 37:11 here: “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”
4. We must pursue righteousness with urgent intensity. (6)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”
Jesus isn’t talking about being a little hungry before dinner or feeling thirsty after a workout. He’s talking about desperation. Life or death hunger and thirst. In Jesus’ day, hunger and thirst could literally kill you. Water was scarce. Food was often limited. Jesus is saying that’s how desperate you should be for righteousness. Most of us have never been truly hungry. We’ve been uncomfortable, but not desperate. We’ve never been so thirsty we’d drink from a mud puddle. But that’s the intensity Jesus is describing. Everything in you should crave righteousness like a starving person craves food.
But what is righteousness? It’s being right with God and living right before God and others. It’s pursued in three ways. First, you hunger for a right relationship with God through Christ. This is justification, being declared righteous because of what Jesus did. Second, you hunger for personal holiness in your own life. This is sanctification, being made righteous in how you live. Third, you hunger to see justice and righteousness in the world around you. This is transformation, working to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.
The great Reformer, Martin Luther, wrestled with this in reading the book of Romans. He thought God’s righteousness meant God was a hostile judge ready to condemn him. Then he realized God’s righteousness was a gift offered through Christ. God wasn’t waiting to condemn him but to save him. But here’s the thing about this hunger: it’s never fully satisfied in this life. The more you taste of God’s righteousness, the more you want. Pursue righteousness in all three dimensions with the same urgency you’d pursue food when starving. That hunger leads to satisfaction. That is how the God-shaped hole in your heart is filled, because it is actually filled by God, not other things.
The last four beatitudes demonstrate how God’s grace overflows to others.
5. We are called to relieve suffering and show compassion to others. (7)
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Mercy is love in action toward people who are hurting. It’s seeing someone’s pain and doing something about it. The Good Samaritan didn’t just feel sorry for the beaten man. He got off his donkey, used his own supplies to bandage wounds, took him to an inn, and paid for his care with his own money. That’s mercy in action.
Mercy relieves the consequences of sin in other people’s lives. Sometimes people are hurting because of their own bad choices. Sometimes they’re hurting because of other people’s bad choices. Mercy doesn’t ask, “Do you deserve this help?” Mercy asks, “How can I help?” It doesn’t matter if they brought it on themselves. It doesn’t matter if they’ll probably mess up again. Mercy sees need and responds.
The priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan had religious reasons to pass by the wounded man. Maybe they were worried about ceremonial cleanness. Maybe they had important religious duties to attend to. (Those we even good and godly reasons!) But Jesus would have ignored all those concerns. “Better to run the risk of becoming ritually unclean than to fail to show mercy to the needy!”[5]
Don’t let religious activities keep you from showing mercy. Don’t let busy schedules keep you from getting involved when people are hurting. Sometimes mercy means getting your hands dirty. Sometimes it means writing a check. Sometimes it means giving up your weekend plans. The merciful will receive mercy, not because they’ve earned it, but because people who understand God’s mercy naturally show mercy to others.
6. We must maintain undivided devotion to Christ. (8)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Purity of heart isn’t just about avoiding bad things. It’s about single-minded devotion to Jesus. It’s like marriage faithfulness. A faithful spouse doesn’t just avoid cheating. Their heart belongs completely to one person. They don’t have divided loyalties. That’s purity of heart toward Christ.
Sinclair Ferguson says, “The impure heart is not simply unclean; it is undecided and divided.”[6] It’s the person who wants to follow Jesus but also wants to keep their options open. It’s having one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world. It’s trying to serve two masters. This is about integrity. What you are in private matches what you are in public. What you think about when your mind wanders reveals what your heart truly loves. What websites you visit, what you watch, what you daydream about, those things show where your heart really is. You can fool other people, but you can’t fool God. He sees the heart. (1 Sam 16:7)
The promise is incredible: the pure in heart will see God. Not just in heaven someday, but in this life. When your heart is completely devoted to Christ, you see Him more clearly. You recognize His work around you. You experience His presence in ways that divided hearts miss. Purity of heart is like cleaning the lens of your glasses. Everything comes into focus. I like how one commentary described it: “The heart-pure person can see God in nature. The heart pure person can see God in Scripture. The heart-pure person can see God in his church family.”[7]
7. We should actively pursue reconciliation in all relationships. (9)
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
This isn’t about avoiding conflict. It’s about making peace. It’s actively working to reconcile people who are at odds with each other. It’s building bridges, not walls. It’s bringing enemies together and helping them become friends. God is the ultimate peacemaker. He made peace between Himself and us through Christ. He reconciled us to Himself when we were His enemies. We had declared war on God through our sin, and He made the first move toward peace by sending His Son. Now, as His children, we’re called to be peacemakers too.
The great Puritan John Owen’s illustration captures this beautifully. Imagine collecting firewood of all different shapes and sizes. Some branches are long and straight, others short and twisted. Some are thick, others thin. How do you carry them all home? You bind them together with rope. “So it is in the Church. What a varied bunch we are! How will Christ carry us home? He ties us together with the bond of peace!”[8]
Peacemaking isn’t just avoiding conflict. It’s actively pursuing reconciliation. When there’s tension in your family, you work to resolve it. When there’s conflict at work, you help people understand each other. When there’s division in the church, you prioritize unity over personal preferences. The ultimate peacemaking work is sharing the gospel, helping people make peace with God through Christ.
8. We are to maintain righteousness despite opposition and persecution. (10-12)
“10 ”Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 ”Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Here’s the reality: if you live out the first seven beatitudes, you’re going to face opposition. The world doesn’t like people who live by kingdom values. Your righteousness makes other people uncomfortable because it exposes their unrighteousness. Your integrity makes their compromise look bad. Your mercy makes their selfishness obvious. This isn’t about being obnoxious or unnecessarily offensive. “The blessing is restricted to those who suffer persecution because of righteousness.”[9] Some people get persecuted because they’re jerks, not because they’re righteous. Some people are offensive in their presentation of the gospel. Make sure your persecution is for the right reasons.
Think about it this way. If you’re absolutely honest at work when everyone else cuts corners, you’re going to stand out. If you refuse to participate in gossip when everyone else loves drama, you’re going to make people uncomfortable. If you live with integrity when everyone else compromises, you’re going to face opposition. Your light makes their darkness obvious. Jesus says when this happens, rejoice! You’re in good company. This is how they treated the prophets. This is how they treated Jesus. Persecution for righteousness is actually a sign that you’re living like a citizen of God’s kingdom rather than a citizen of this world.
These kingdom characteristics authenticate genuine discipleship.
The kingdom of heaven bookends the beatitudes. Both the first and last promise “the kingdom of heaven.” Everything in between describes what citizens of God’s kingdom look like. If you never experience any persecution at all, where is righteousness being displayed in your life? If your faith never creates any friction, maybe you’re not living distinctively enough.
As John Stott says, “The values and standards of Jesus are in direct conflict with the commonly accepted values and standards of the world around us.”[10] The world says grab what you can. Jesus says give it away. The world says assert your rights. Jesus says surrender them. The world says look out for yourself. Jesus says serve others.
But here’s the beautiful thing. The beatitudes aren’t a checklist to achieve. They’re a description of what happens when Jesus transforms you. They’re interconnected aspects of every believer’s character. They flow from relationship with Christ, not effort to be good. The beatitudes promise the deepest fulfillment to those willing to embrace God’s upside-down kingdom values.
Jesus calls us to find strength in weakness, joy in mourning, satisfaction in spiritual hunger, and blessing in persecution. This is the way of the kingdom. This is the life that God blesses. This is the only life that will ultimately satisfy. And this is only found in Jesus.
[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/3107.htm
[2] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992), 16.
[3] D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount: An Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7 (Baker Book House, 1978), 17.
[4] Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, 20.
[5] Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 32.
[6] Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount, 37.
[7] https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/matthew-5
[8] Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount, 40.
[9] Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, 27.
[10] John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1978), 37.
