An Introduction to the Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-10


We are all meant to exemplify everything that is contained in the Beatitudes. Therefore let us once and forever get rid of that false notion. This is not merely a description of the Hudson Taylors or the George Mullers or the Whitefields or Wesleys of this world; it is a description of every Christian. We are ALL of us meant to conform to its pattern and to rise to its standards.


ALL Christians  are meant to manifest all of these characteristics ("the poor in spirit", "those who mourn", the "meek", those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness", the "merciful", the "pure in heart", the "peacemakers", the persecuted for righteous sake".) Not only are they meant for ALL Christians, but of necessity, therefore, ALL Christians are meant to manifest all of them. It is not right to say some are meant to "mourn," and some are meant to be "meek", and some are meant to be "peacmakers", and so on. No; every Christian is meant to be ALL of them, and to manifest all of them at the same time. I think we can go even further and say that the character of tis detailed description is such, that it becomes quite obvious, the moment we analyse each Beautitude, that each one of necessity implies the other. For instance, you cannot be "poor in spirit" without "mourning" in this sense; and you cannot mourn without "hungering and thirsting after righteousness", and you cannot do that without being one who is "meek"and a "peacemaker. Each one of these in a sense demands the others. The Beatitudes are a complete whole and you cannot divide them; so that, whereas one of them may be more manifest perhaps in one person than in another, all of them are there. The relative proportions may vary, but they are all present, and they are all meant to be present at the same time.


That is a vitally important principle. But there is perhaps an even more important principle. None of these Beatitudes refer to what we may call a natural tendency. Each one of them is wholly a disposition which is produced by grace alone and the operation of the Holy Spirit upon us. I cannot emphasize this too strongly. No man naturally conforms to the descriptions here given in the Beatitudes, and we must be very careful to draw a sharp distinction between the spiritual qualities that are here described and material ones which appear to be like them. Let me put it this way: There are some people who appear to be naturally poor in spirit; that is not what is described here by our Lord. There are people who appear to be naturally meek; but this too is not what Christ is talking about. These are not natural qualities; nobody by birth and by nature is like this.


These Beatitudes indicate clearly the essential, utter difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. This is the thing that should really concern us. This is not just a description of what a person does; the real point is this difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. The New Testament regards this as something absolutely basic and fundamental, and the first need in the church is a clear understanding of this essential difference. it has become blurred; the world has come into the church and the church has become worldly. The line is not as distinct as it was. The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. it is then that the world is made to listen to her message, through it may hate it at first. That is how revival comes. That must also be true of us as individuals. it should not be our ambition to be as much like everybody else as we can, though we happen to be Christian, but rather to be as different from everybody who is not a Christian as we can possibly be. Our ambition should be to be like Christ, the more like Him the better, and the more like Him we become, the ore we shall be unlike everyone who is not a Christian.


Let me show you this in detail. The Christian and the non-Christian are absolutely different in what they admire. The Christian admires the person who is "poor in spirit", while the modern philosophers despise such a person, and all the world today feels the same way. The world beleaves in self-confidence, self-expression and the mastery of life; the Christian believes in being "poor in spirit." Take the newspapers and television and see the kind of person the world admires. You will never find anything that is further removed from the Beatitudes than that which appeals to the natural person - the unbeliever. The non-Christian likes an element of boastfulness, but that is the vry thing that is condemned in the Beatitudes.


Then, obviously, they must be different in what they seek. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst." After what? Wealth, money, status, position, publicity? Not at all. "Righteousness" and being righteous is being right with God.


Then, of course, the Christian and the  non-Christian are absolutely different in what they do. The non-Christian states by saying "This is the world, and I am going to get all I can out of it." But the Christian says he is not living for this world; he regards this world as but the way of entry into something vast and eternal and glorious. His whole outlook and ambition is different.


The truth is that the Christian and the non-Christian belong to two entirely different realms. You will notice the first Beatitude and the last Beatitude promise the same reward, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Our Lord states and ends with it because it is His way of saying that the first thing you have to realize about yourself as a Christian is that you belong to a different kingdom. You are in this world, but you are not of it. You are a citizen of another kingdom.


~Martyn Lloyd-Jones~ "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount"