5:1* ¶ And when He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He
sat down, His disciples came to Him.
2* And opening His mouth He began to teach them, saying,
3* ¶ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The poor in spirit are blessed because they Know they are poor and need
God and because of that they will inherit the Kingdom.
4* “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Those who mourn will be comforted and in being comforted they
experience the love of Christ.
5* “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Gentle is a translation of meek and the meek (those who don’t make
themselves the issue) will inherit the earth. It is not the strong that survive
but the meek, which is how God’s Kingdom works.
6* “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be satisfied.
The hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the result of the Holy
Spirit living in us and as He indwells us our hunger and thirst are
satisfied by Him.
7* “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Mercy is everything and as we show mercy we are living out of our new
identity of Christ in us, and God likewise shows us mercy. We must show
mercy and the world needs to see that In Christ I can be merciful as Christ
has been to me. Showing mercy is our calling and God is honored and
glorified as we do this. We must do this. We must demonstrate mercy and
forgiveness and love so they will see Christ in us.
8* “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Only the pure in Heart - those who have been forgiven and repented can
see God. I must never forget this and with every sin I commit I must
confess and repent seek God’s forgiveness. This allows me to know Him
and see Him and experience Him.
9* “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Peacemakers - Of all the things we are called to do this is the highest
calling - to be peacemakers. To bring those in conflict to a place where
they can embrace peace and choose to give up fighting and demanding
and war and hatred and killing. In doing this I am acting as a Son of God.
10* “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be persecuted for the sake of righteousness is to follow Christ to the
cross and suffer for righteousness sake. To do so is be blessed by God
because we are standing up for what is right even though we will suffer. In
doing this I am joining Christ in His sufferings and God is glorified and I am
blessed.
11* “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all
kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.
Jesus is saying that we are blessed when men cast insults and persecute us and
lie about us because of Jesus. Even if they do this, I am still blessed because I
stood up for Christ and He knows it.
12* “Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
I can rejoice in the persecution knowing that the prophets were persecuted
before me and God sees and God knows and God honors my willingness to be
persecuted for His sake. I must never back down. I must be willing to suffer for
the truth and know that God sees, and honors me for being willing to suffer for the sake of truth
and Him, and what I believe. This is what Jesus called us to - to join in His sufferings.
and Him, and what I believe. This is what Jesus called us to - to join in His sufferings.
No comments:
Post a Comment