The First Beatitude

Today’s scripture reading: Matthew 5:1-12

Human desires are unending. Before finally creating Adam and Eve, he created the world and made it sustainable. God created external things for a man to use. He did not intend those things to be the focal point of man’s life or the primary reason for their existence.

Jesus offered His disciples blessings, saying that those who are poor in spirit will be blessed. The ancient Greek word for blessed means “happy,” but this is not in the modern sense of “comfortable” or “entertained.” A spiritually destitute person understands they lack spiritual “assets.” This is the first beatitude because it is here that we begin our relationship with God. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Everyone can begin here; it is not only the pure, holy, or great that are blessed. Everyone has the potential to be spiritually poor.

The instruction to be poor in spirit comes first for a reason: it puts the other commands on the beatitudes into context. We can only complete them with a humble faith in God’s might, not by our own strength. We do not mourn unless we are poor in spirit.