“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)
The Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7, contains many teachings about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus began this sermon with a series of statements called the Beatitudes.
What is a beatitude? It is a high-sounding word. Someone might ask, “How does one attain unto a beatitude? Am I allowed to have one? Are they only for people with halos around their heads?”
Beatitude simply means “a blessing.” The Beatitudes are blessings that Jesus pronounced on those who obtain the character qualities He describes in these verses. Jesus spoke these blessings to His disciples, who were common, ordinary folks. They were rugged fishermen, tax collectors, and people from surrounding towns. They had walked the dusty roads to come listen to Jesus. Jesus gave these blessings to point out the joy and happiness that is found in following Him.
It is significant that Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with these words. In each blessing some character trait is highlighted. These character traits describe the character of those who follow Jesus. The Beatitudes come first because they are indispensable to living out the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Trying to live out the commands of Christ without possessing these characteristics is like trying to run a gasoline engine without oil in the oil pan.
In the first beatitude, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It does not mean to be poor in material resources, for Jesus said “poor in spirit” not “poor in money.” Does it then refer to those who are spiritually poor? This certainly gets closer to Jesus’ meaning, but not quite. You see, everyone is spiritually destitute before God—but not everyone believes that about themselves. This blessing is for the spiritually poor who also recognize and confess that they are spiritually poor.
The meaning of poor in spirit is illustrated in a parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14. Two men went to the temple to pray. The first, a Pharisee, prayed, not talking to God so much as boasting to whoever heard him. He thanked God that he was such a good and pious man. The second man, a tax collector, simply prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Both of these men were sinners. Both were spiritually destitute before God. But only one admitted it and cried out to God for mercy. He was the one who received the blessing of this beatitude.
The blessing promised to the poor in spirit is that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They have the blessing of entering into and participating in Christ’s spiritual kingdom.
1. We Need to be Poor in Spirit to Enter the Kingdom
Jesus put this beatitude first because it is the basic requirement for entering into the kingdom of Heaven. Many people fail to enter the kingdom because they do not (or will not) recognize that they are sinners who are utterly bankrupt before a holy God. Do we really know how sinful we are in comparison to God? It would only take one glimpse of God in all His radiant glory to convince us of our complete inadequacy to measure up to God’s holiness. When Isaiah saw the Lord upon His throne, Isaiah’s immediate response was, “Woe is me!” (Isaiah 6:5). He needed nothing else to convince him of his sinfulness.
If people lack of this character quality that Jesus calls poor in spirit, it is because there is a dearth among Christians in their understanding of human sinfulness in comparison to God’s holiness. We would be disgusted at a drug lord convicted of murder and abduction who tried to tell everyone that he really was a good person and deserved to live among free society. We would rightly conclude that he has no concept of decency and justice.
Yet those who sidle up to God with a self-righteous sense of goodness because they are not sinners like others are like that drug lord. The righteous deeds of such a person are, according to Isaiah 64:6, like filthy rags. The words filthy rags evoked in the minds of Isaiah’s original audience the idea of something that was disgusting and defiling. We need to know something of our own wretchedness before a holy God!
It is a very low gate by which we must enter into the kingdom. We need to come to God recognizing that we are sinners. We need to recognize that we are bankrupt before God, with nothing to offer, nothing to pay for the wrong we have done, and nothing to make us worthy of Heaven. We need to recognize that without Christ we are dead in our sins, children of wrath, strangers from God’s promises, having no hope, and without God in this world. Only by God’s great mercy and grace can we be forgiven and received into His kingdom.
Many today suppose they can come to God without stooping to go through the gate called “Poor in Spirit.” They presume that they are pretty good, that they have done the best they can, and that God should accept them the way they are. But Scripture is clear that the only way to come to God is by acknowledging that “there is none righteous, no, not one”—not even me. All have sinned.
The Scripture reveals the holy character of God in order that “all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:10,19,23). The marvelous message of the gospel is that God will accept those who confess that they are guilty before God and come before Him with a contrite heart (Isaiah 57:15). Those who presume to come in any other way will be rejected, for they understand neither their own sinfulness nor God’s holiness.
The Greek word (ptōchos) translated “poor” in this beatitude conveys the idea of utter destitution. It originally referred to someone who was poor to the point of needing to beg. He had no wealth (not even a little) and no means to sustain himself except by begging. Likewise, we come before God as beggars, having nothing at all to offer Him that would make up for our wrongdoing.
Yet to be poor in spirit does not mean that we grovel before God in self-pity with a sense of being worthless. Yes, we are unworthy beggars. Yet we are beggars who, taking hold of the hand outstretched to us, look up into the face of One whose eyes shine with forgiveness. To be poor in spirit does not mean that we timidly fawn before God, hoping that if we beg pitifully enough God will toss something our way. No. We can approach God with the confidence that He invites repentant sinners to come to Him.
The parable of the prodigal son illustrates God’s attitude toward beggars (Luke 15:11-32). The prodigal son had demanded his inheritance from his father, effectively saying, “I wish you dead rather than alive.” Then he had traveled abroad and squandered his money on foolish pleasures. Finally, reduced to utter poverty, the son decided to return home and say to his father, “I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”
But when the father saw in the distance his contrite son trudging homeward, the father “had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” The father’s actions toward his son are a picture of what the word grace means. Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward us.
Even after we have entered the kingdom, there is the lurking danger that we forget how we gained our acceptance before God. We may begin to think that our sins were not so great, that the blood shed for our sins was not very necessary, and that we came into the kingdom by the merits of our own righteousness. Perhaps we think that God pulled a pretty big fish out of the pond when He got us—and that now, by our own strength, we render to God a great service. No, friend, we are saved by grace and only by the grace of God are we what we are.
The condition of one who is without Christ is like that of a drowning man. He is entirely unable to rescue himself and will certainly perish unless he reaches out and grasps the hand outstretched to him. He can deny he needs help and refuse the hand. Or he can admit his helpless condition and accept the salvation that is offered. A person rescued from such a condition should never forget that he was not saved by his own strength.
2. We Need to be Poor in Spirit to Grow in the Kingdom
When we enter the kingdom of God, God forgives our sins by His grace. His grace also gives us strength. Grace is God’s favor toward us that causes God to give us strength to put away sin and do right. Second Timothy 2:1 says that we are empowered by grace. Hebrews 4:16 says that we receive grace to help us in times of need. And 2 Peter 3:18 says that we are to grow (become spiritually mature) by means of grace.
It is only because of God’s grace that we are able to be a follower of Christ and obey His teachings. We cannot dispense with being poor in spirit once we have entered the kingdom. We need to continue to depend upon God to enable us to grow in the kingdom.
Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” Perhaps no other verse strikes a more devastating blow to our proud, self-reliant nature. Jesus says, “Without me ye can do nothing.” If we want to develop Christian character, we need Christ. If we do not abide in Him, we will accomplish nothing toward this end. Nothing. Christ does not even permit us the hope that we will accomplish one little thing without Him.
We must be poor in spirit, saying, “I cannot do this, except by the grace of God.” Just as a branch cannot bear grapes unless it receives the nutrients and energy it needs from the vine, so we cannot become fruitful Christians unless Christ gives us the Spirit and power we need. The Apostle Paul was quick to own the fact that he was fruitful because of Christ working in him. Paul said, “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Colossians 1:29).
Paul acknowledged that his fruitfulness was the result of God’s grace, not his own strength, skill, or goodness. He said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” There was growth in his life. He did not say, “I am what I was,” but, “I am what I am.” God’s grace had produced change. Paul continued, “I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Any successful person could make the first statement: “I laboured more abundantly than they all.” But only someone poor in spirit can make the second statement and mean it: “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Do you struggle to grow in holiness? Do the strongholds of sin remain unconquered? Do the bulwarks of virtue remain unbuilt? Could the problem be that you have ignored God’s resources and are relying instead upon your own strength? Remember, Jesus said, “Without me ye can do nothing.”
Romans 7:14-25 describes a man who is trying to grow with his own resources. This man says, “I will sin no more.” But he sins. He says, “I will do what is good.” But he does not. He cannot. Why? Because he is trying to do it himself. At the center of his life is self, trying to conquer, trying to build, trying to do it his way. This man only finds what he so desperately needs when he admits, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me…?” He has now become poor in spirit. He owns the reality that he is a beggar. He needs God’s resources. He turns to Christ and says that this is the One, the only One, who can make a difference. He puts Christ at the center of his life. He finds that grace (the gift of God’s power in his life) makes a difference. He has become connected to the vine.
Knowing that God’s power is at work in our lives should not make us passive, thinking that God will do it all. Instead, it should lead us to action, knowing that God will give us the strength to do His will. David did not draw back from Goliath, saying, “God will take care of him.” He went out to fight him, saying, “The Lord…will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Work out your own salvation…For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” We are to work because we know that God is at work in us. We need to have faith in God’s grace.
The Christian who is poor in spirit does not quail in the face of impossible tasks, because as a beggar he trusts in the infinite resources of the One he is depending upon. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). This verse could be translated as, “I have the strength I need for every situation in Christ who strengthens me.” Paul was confident that he could grow in the kingdom because he was relying on Christ’s exhaustless resources.
3. We Need to be Poor in Spirit to Build the Kingdom
Christ has given His followers the task of building His church (1 Corinthians 3:9-11). By now it will be no surprise to learn that we need to be poor in spirit if we are going to have any real success in advancing Christ’s kingdom on earth. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the church, empowering it to carry on Christ’s work (Acts 1:8). The book of Acts tells how the church grew as men and women were led and equipped by the Spirit. That same Spirit gives the followers of Christ spiritual gifts to use in the work of the church today (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). The church will succeed and grow through the power of God (1 Corinthians 3:6).
Yet we are prone to think that we know better. We may begin to think that our wealth and expertise will build the kingdom. That’s what the church at Laodicea thought. They said, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17). Confident in their riches, they said they did not need anything else to do God’s work. Maybe they did not start out thinking this way, but eventually they began acting as if they did not need God’s help. Their statement was man’s gleeful assessment of man’s resources.
However, Christ had a different assessment of man’s resources. Christ said, “Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Ouch! Christ was not impressed with their riches. He knew that self-reliance would not build His kingdom. Their method would not do it. They needed to do it God’s way.
Christ had some counsel for them. He told them where to get the resources that would build His kingdom. It was not from the same place they had been filling their coffers. Christ said that they could only obtain such resources by asking Him.
Scripture does not tell us exactly what riches the Laodiceans were trusting in. But we can ask, what might we rely on instead of God’s strength and wisdom? Perhaps it is education. We might earn a college degree and then, trusting in our learning, go out to build the church and change the world. Education can be helpful, but education cannot do what only the Spirit of God can do in people’s hearts. We might trust in our money to build the kingdom. But many millions of dollars are useless apart from the power of God changing people’s lives. We might organize programs. But the best programs are ineffective if God is not in it.
God’s plan for building His kingdom is the “foolishness” (in the world’s view) of preaching (but to the saved, it is the power of God). God’s program is to take repentant sinners and transform them into sons and daughters of God. God’s power is the Holy Spirit. God’s education plan is the knowledge of Jesus Christ. God help us to depend on Him! We need to be poor in spirit, looking to God for His strength, resources, and wisdom. We need to build His kingdom His way.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches His disciples God’s will for Christian living. He calls us to put away lust, to be faithful to our marriage vows, to let our yes be yes and our no be no, to refuse to retaliate, and to love our enemies. But first, Christ calls us to be poor in spirit. We cannot live up to God’s standards on our own. We need God’s help. Those who are poor in spirit are those who know that they need God’s help and who also believe that God will give them the grace they need to be able to live out Christ’s teachings.
Jesus promised that the kingdom of God belongs to those who are poor in spirit. You can be part of Christ’s kingdom if you will confess that you need Christ to forgive your sins and make you a new person. Christ waits for you, and He will hear if you call out to Him.
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