A Good Poverty

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Matthew 5:3

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

(CSB)

This posting is the first in the series on the beatitudes.  The beatitudes represent the core values of the church but like any stated core values, are useless unless placed into practice.  (1)  The beatitudes mirror the Ten Commandments as they represent a summary of the Gospel just as the Ten Commandments represent a summary of the law.  (1)  For example, the first commandment tells us not to have any other gods (Exodus 20:3).  This mirrors the first Beatitude which tells us that the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).  Being poor in spirit means,

1)      Surrender of one’s life to God (Romans 12:2) – One of the dangers of political correctness is its asks people to conform to a popular way of thinking, a way of thinking that usually does not conform to God’s Word.  To be poor in spirit requires one to surrender their life, including their way of thinking, to God.  This mirrors the first commandment but goes beyond just obedience to the law and calls for one to make the Spirit of God part of our entire lives.  In addition, obedience to this Beatitude does not mean avoidance of the curse of the law but instead the blessing of inheriting the Kingdom of God. 

2)      Learning to wait (Jeremiah 29:11) – While God’s plans for our lives are good, they do not necessarily happen on our schedule but on God’s schedule.  During the waiting period our spirits can become restless and we tend to take matters into our own hands instead of waiting on the Lord.  When this occurs, we tend to take matters into our own hands often sabotaging God’s plan for us.  Not waiting on the Lord robs us of the renewed strength that occurs through waiting (Isaiah 40:31).  Poverty of spirit means surrender to God’s plans for us which requires waiting. 

3)      Serving others as a servant of God (Matthew 18:1-4) – When asked about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God, Jesus instructed His Disciples that it is the one who serves.  This line of thinking went against the thinking of the day as the people following Jesus lived under Roman oppression.  Modern leadership theory has begun to accept servant leadership as a viable model for leadership (2) but the child of God still experiences oppression as they live in a post-modern culture void of any standard of truth.  (3)  However, the calling of the church is making disciples of the nations (Matthew 28:19) and as such, we all have a calling to serve others by living for Christ even if it is not popular or even politically correct. 

Typically, the thought of being poor posits images of one being homeless and destitute, but this is not what living poor in spirit means.  Poverty of spirit means one surrendering their life to God, surrendering their will to God by waiting on His timing, and surrendering their service to serving others as they serve God.  Next Saturday we will look at the blessing of finding comfort in times or mourning. 

1. Guion, David. Beatitudes vs Ten Commandments. grace.allpurposeguru.com. [Online] Grace and Judgment, April 27, 2011. [Cited: June 23, 2018.] http://grace.allpurposeguru.com/2011/04/beatitutes-vs-ten-commandments/.

2. David E Melcher, Susan M. Bosco. Achieving High Organization Performance through Servant Leadership. docs.rwu.edu. [Online] RWU University Libraries, 2010. [Cited: 23 2018, June .] https://docs.rwu.edu/gsb_fp/17/.

3. Dulgnan, Brian. Postmodernism Philosophy. www.britannica.com. [Online] Encyclopedia Britannica, October 31, 2014. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy.