Question on 1 of the Beatitudes?

[JTC]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question on 1 of the beatitudes. I have never known what this means, and I have often been asked. I've heard explanations but they never stick in my mind. I just did something I could never do before. Using this wondrous Internet, I called up the verse in 5 different translations, and compared it to 5 translations in Luke's version of it. I don't think it's in Mark. If it is someone please tell me where?

The verse is Matthew 5:3, and the corresponding verse in Luke is 6:20.

I usually prefer the NIV but this is the KJV.

Matthew 5:3 says,

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

It's "poor in spirit" that I don't understand.

In Luke it says,

Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Now to me, that's like a completely different idea. In Luke I take Jesus to mean poor as in money. But in Matthew Jesus said Poor in Spirit, which I'm not even sure what He meant by that phrase?

It just occurred to me that as a 21 century American man, it's a given I'd think the word poor in Luke means money. Perhaps 2000 years ago Jesus knew the people would know what He was referring to.

So having just compared many Bible translations at once, I have an idea what Jesus may have meant. But I'd still like to hear what all of you think? I believe God gives insight to the people who want it. If you have wisdom on this, please share it.

[gdemoss]

John,

This scripture stumped me for a while because I didn't really understand the concept of the spirit. So naturally I had no idea what it meant to be poor in spirit versus rich in spirit. I find that when I don't understand something in scripture, that if I confess it to God and ask for his help he leads me to what I need to understand it. Sometimes I am not lacking much and I receive instant revelation and understanding of the text. Other times it has taken months before God builds the necessary foundation for me to understand the text. Understanding of the scriptures must be built precept upon precept and line upon line.

To be poor in spirit is to be needy. It is to be one who is prone to failure. Those who are proud, self made men, haughty, arrogant and such are rich in spirit. They are very spirited. Those who are bankrupt in spirit find themselves on their knees pleading with God for help to accomplish what they need to do. They give God credit where credit is due. Nebuchadnezzar was rich in spirit whereas Moses was humble or poor in spirit. Peter had trouble because he was spirited and even so much as he rebuked the Lord and told him he was wrong. It isn't something that isn't fixable as we see Peter humbled along with Nebuchadnezzar.

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

To God be the Glory,

Gary

[Jayyycuuup]

John,

This scripture stumped me for a while because I didn't really understand the concept of the spirit. So naturally I had no idea what it meant to be poor in spirit versus rich in spirit. I find that when I don't understand something in scripture, that if I confess it to God and ask for his help he leads me to what I need to understand it. Sometimes I am not lacking much and I receive instant revelation and understanding of the text. Other times it has taken months before God builds the necessary foundation for me to understand the text. Understanding of the scriptures must be built precept upon precept and line upon line.

To be poor in spirit is to be needy. It is to be one who is prone to failure. Those who are proud, self made men, haughty, arrogant and such are rich in spirit. They are very spirited. Those who are bankrupt in spirit find themselves on their knees pleading with God for help to accomplish what they need to do. They give God credit where credit is due. Nebuchadnezzar was rich in spirit whereas Moses was humble or poor in spirit. Peter had trouble because he was spirited and even so much as he rebuked the Lord and told him he was wrong. It isn't something that isn't fixable as we see Peter humbled along with Nebuchadnezzar.

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

To God be the Glory,

Gary

I had a similar interpretation as you Gary but did not quite grasp the total meaning... great post !

[JTC]

That makes sense guys, so I guess I'm hung up on the word poor. Although I don't have a problem in believing those who are poor in this world's things belong to the kingdom of God. It just seemed to me that if you're rich in spirit then you should be of God's kingdom. But ah, I see the mistake I was making. To me being poor in spirit meant being poor in the qualities that define a man of God. To me poor in spirit would be to be violent, unforgiving, haughty, nasty, greedy, selfish and self centered. Or moreover, I thought poor in spirit meant lacking the Holy Spirit, or worse, lacking the kind of spirit that the Holy Spirit can work on. Ive known some people that seem to be incorrigible, even to the Holy Spirit. But from what you guys are saying, I have it the exact opposite of what the phrase means. So you're saying that to be poor in spirit is to be rich in the characteristics that matter to God. And to be rich in spirit is do we lacking in the traits considered Godly. I got it Gary, when you said a person like Nebuchadnezzar can be said to be high spirited. Then I got it. Someone who is so sure of his human self, that he looks down on everyone, including God. It still seems illogical to me. It's like wrapping my brain inside out. I don't think it has to mean prone to failure. I think it must mean humble. Thanks.

[Guest]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question on 1 of the beatitudes. I have never known what this means, and I have often been asked. I've heard explanations but they never stick in my mind. I just did something I could never do before. Using this wondrous Internet, I called up the verse in 5 different translations, and compared it to 5 translations in Luke's version of it. I don't think it's in Mark. If it is someone please tell me where?

The verse is Matthew 5:3, and the corresponding verse in Luke is 6:20.

I usually prefer the NIV but this is the KJV.

Matthew 5:3 says,

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

It's "poor in spirit" that I don't understand.

In Luke it says,

Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Now to me, that's like a completely different idea. In Luke I take Jesus to mean poor as in money. But in Matthew Jesus said Poor in Spirit, which I'm not even sure what He meant by that phrase?

Looking Back

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15

And Still You'll Read It

[GraceAboundsforever]

John,

This scripture stumped me for a while because I didn't really understand the concept of the spirit. So naturally I had no idea what it meant to be poor in spirit versus rich in spirit. I find that when I don't understand something in scripture, that if I confess it to God and ask for his help he leads me to what I need to understand it. Sometimes I am not lacking much and I receive instant revelation and understanding of the text. Other times it has taken months before God builds the necessary foundation for me to understand the text. Understanding of the scriptures must be built precept upon precept and line upon line.

To be poor in spirit is to be needy. It is to be one who is prone to failure. Those who are proud, self made men, haughty, arrogant and such are rich in spirit. They are very spirited. Those who are bankrupt in spirit find themselves on their knees pleading with God for help to accomplish what they need to do. They give God credit where credit is due. Nebuchadnezzar was rich in spirit whereas Moses was humble or poor in spirit. Peter had trouble because he was spirited and even so much as he rebuked the Lord and told him he was wrong. It isn't something that isn't fixable as we see Peter humbled along with Nebuchadnezzar.

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

To God be the Glory,

Gary

AMEN! Excellent Post.

The scarifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise.

Psalms 51:17

The Lord is night unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psalms 34:18

For the poor in spirit are temporary sick, but will be given fresh live with their answer;

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12

During His earthly ministry we see that Jesus knew sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3). For in taking Human form the Word of God became the Son of God (Psalms 2:7; John 1:14), and became a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9). So in this state, the Word of God, was made poor:

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.

II Corinthians 8:9

Yes when people understand how poor our Lord Jesus Christ became for us, we truly understand His Kingdom. And if we accept His gift we will receive the Kingdom of Heaven/God.

[JeannieC]

Hey JTC. I was also confused by the meaning of poor in spirit. What helped me was when I found the description of the greek work for poor (ptochos). It is described as 1) being reduced to beggary, begging, asking alms. 2) destitute of wealth, influence, position or honor as well as lowly, afflicted, destitute of any Christian virtues or eternal riches, helpless and powerless to accomplish an end.

That description helps me to understand poor in spirit as apart from God we have nothing and are spiritually bankrupt. That emptiness and realization that apart from God and His grace we have nothing is what humbles us and gives us the desire to do the will of God and then that emptiness becomes like an empty vessel waiting to be filled with and by God through is Holy Spirit. I think that realization that we are spiritually helpless without God and the humility and sorrow that we feel knowing we are lost in sin is the mourning mentioned in the the second Beatitude "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." so it ties together there for me and helps me understand both verses. I'm new to this though so that is what I understand to the best of my ability at this point.

Edited August 15, 2012 by JeannieC

[Guest Mark G]

Poor in spirit = acknowledgement of lack, of need, of helplessness to fill up that lack. Or to make up for it in any way. A silent call for mercy... realization that God can bring us to our true nature which is to be a channel for God-conciousness rather than the animal impulse life.... like the 'dogs of Ephesus'.

This silent call is experienced when we let go of our wordly distractions... entertainment, junk food, evil freinds, etc... when we 'be still and know He is God' such as in true prayer.

True prayer is a silent stillness, where the veil is taken away from our eyes and we see where our sin nature has led to so- far.... We see it's selfishness and animalistic desires.. We see it's joy at other's failures.. We see it's vampirish nature as we 'suck' the life force from our 'loved' ones... We see that we cannnot give real love..that our love only spoils our loved ones and turn them into brats or makes them more weak and dependent on us. We see that real love can only be channeled through us by the God within us.. etc.

Yes, how poverty stricken in spirit we have become.. This 'poor' in spirit acts as a magnet to bring in true healing from the God-source. We connect to God and He slowly becomes our new source to flow through us. This is not an ego-healing, but rather, the ego is as a demon that must be ejected.. It is the sin nature that Paul the apostle talks about when he discovered.."It is not I who sinned, but the sin nature within me".

Yes, and back then they had evil spirits ejected from them.. But now in our modern day of psychology, no one is really healed or exorcised, just doped up or given encouraging lies to temporarily boost up the ego.

The person never really gets remedied of his spiritual plight, and therefore has to return again and again to the psychologist or doctor or false church... They are given 'band-aid' solutions... But only God can really heal us.

Edited August 15, 2012 by Mark G

[Zemke]

Hey JTC. I was also confused by the meaning of poor in spirit. What helped me was when I found the description of the greek work for poor (ptochos). It is described as 1) being reduced to beggary, begging, asking alms. 2) destitute of wealth, influence, position or honor as well as lowly, afflicted, destitute of any Christian virtues or eternal riches, helpless and powerless to accomplish an end.

That description helps me to understand poor in spirit as apart from God we have nothing and are spiritually bankrupt. That emptiness and realization that apart from God and His grace we have nothing is what humbles us and gives us the desire to do the will of God and then that emptiness becomes like an empty vessel waiting to be filled with and by God through is Holy Spirit. I think that realization that we are spiritually helpless without God and the humility and sorrow that we feel knowing we are lost in sin is the mourning mentioned in the the second Beatitude "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." so it ties together there for me and helps me understand both verses. I'm new to this though so that is what I understand to the best of my ability at this point.

Amen,

Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?

Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the LORD.

Lamentations 3:39

[JTC]

Thank you for all the answers. I'm going to add that we go to God, and especially to Jesus, as poor in spirit. If we refuse to bankrupt our spirit, it's doubtful that we can even reach out to Jesus. Once He comes to us, and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, things start to change. Through the Holy Spirit we start to experience being rich in spirit, although this is not of ourselves, it's through the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with our spirits. And this is what had me confused. First of all, I simply wasn't catching on to how the Lord was using the phrase. But secondly of all, I was thinking "but we should be rich in spirit to get to the kingdom of God". I was missing the fact that we can only have that kind of richness in spirit through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was addressing people before the Holy Spirit had been given to all who come to Him. I was over looking the fact that when Jesus walked the Earth, only a very few and select people had been given the Holy Spirit. So now this makes sense to me.

I also want to say welcome to Worthy to Mark G. You came to the correct conclusions, but I caution you with the reasoning you're using. God is a real and living God, He's not a god-source. And God consciousness is simply being very aware of God. I apologize if I'm wrong, but those 2 phases smack of new age philosophy. The new age has a sliver of truth in it, but the rest are the devils lies. So just be careful with that.

Thank you again to everyone.