Poor (4434) (ptochos from ptosso = crouch, cringe, cower down or hide oneself for fear, a picture of one crouching and cowering like a beggar with a tin cup to receive the pennies dropped in!) is an adjective which describes one who crouches and cowers and is used as a noun to mean beggar. These poor were unable to meet their basic needs and so were forced to depend on others or on society. Classical Greek used the ptochos to refer to a person reduced to total destitution, who crouched in a corner begging. As he held out one hand for alms he often hid his face with the other hand, because he was ashamed of being recognized. Ptochos describes not simply honest poverty, and the struggle of the laboring man to make ends meet but also describes abject poverty, which has literally nothing and which is in imminent danger of real starvation. Ptochos focuses on a state of dependence, so that in Mt 5:3 "the poor in spirit" are those who have learned to be completely dependent on God for everything and these are the ones who possess the kingdom of heaven. Ptochos (35x in NASB): poor, 29; poor man, 5; worthless, 1 - Matt 5:3; 11:5; 19:21; 26:9, 11; Mark 10:21; 12:42, 43; 14:5, 7; Luke 4:18; 6:20; 7:22; 14:13, 21; 16:20, 22; 18:22; 19:8; 21:3; John 12:5, 6, 8; 13:29; Rom 15:26; 2 Cor 6:10; Gal 2:10; 4:9; Jas 2:2, 3, 5, 6; Rev 3:17; 13:16 Ptochos - 88x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (LXX) - Exod 23:11; Lev 19:10, 15; 23:22; Deut 24:19; Ruth 3:10; 1 Sam 2:8; 2 Sam 22:28; 2 Kgs 24:14; 25:12; Esth 1:20; 9:22; Job 29:12; 34:28; 36:6; Ps 9:18; 10:2, 9, 14; 12:5; 14:6; 22:24; 25:16; 34:6; 35:10; 37:14; 40:17; 41:1; 68:10; 69:29, 32; 70:5; 72:2, 4, 12f; 74:21; 82:3f; 86:1; 88:15; 102:1; 109:16, 21; 113:7; 132:15; 140:12; Prov 13:8; 14:20f, 31; 17:5; 19:4, 7, 17, 22; 22:2, 7, 9, 22; 28:3, 6, 8, 15, 27; 29:7, 14; 31:20; Isa 3:14f; 10:2; 14:30; 24:6; 25:3; 29:19; 41:17; 58:7; 61:1; Jer 5:4; Ezek 16:49; 18:12; 22:29; Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:4, 6; Hab 3:14 Paul uses the derivative verb form of ptochos (ptocheuo = to be destitute, extremely poor) to describe our Lord Jesus writing to the Corinthians in his great exposition on giving from the heart that... you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, (He became extremely poor) that you through His poverty (ptocheia = noun form = extreme poverty) might become rich (abundance of riches, ultimately speaking of spiritual riches not material riches). (2Cor 8:9) (cf Mt 8:20) In light of this truth about the extreme poverty of our Lord, Richards writes... Similarly, in order to follow him and to live a life of dependency, Christ's disciples left employment (Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20; Lk 5:1-11, 27-29; cf. Mt 10:1-16; Lk 10:1-17). Jesus and his disciples accepted this role in their eagerness to do the work of God's kingdom. They had made the choice freely in an awareness of God the Father's care (Mt 6:25-33). (Richards, L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency) Vincent writes that ptochos conveys the idea of utter destitution, which abjectly solicits and lives by alms. Hence it is applied to Lazarus (Luke 16:20, 22), and rendered beggar. Thus distinguished, it is very graphic and appropriate here, as denoting the utter spiritual destitution, the consciousness of which precedes the entrance into the kingdom of God, and which cannot be relieved by one’s own efforts, but only by the free mercy of God. (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 1, Page 3-36). William Barclay - In Greek there are two words for poor. There is the word penÄ"s. PenÄ"s describes a man who has to work for his living the man for whom life and living is a struggle, the man who is the reverse of the man who lives in affluence. Penes is defined by the Greeks as describing the man who is autodiakonos, that is, the man who serves his own needs with his own hands. PenÄ"s describes the working man, the man who has nothing superfluous, the man who is not rich, but who is not destitute either. But, as we have seen, it is not penÄ"s that is used in this beatitude, it is ptōchos, which describes absolute and abject poverty. It is connected with the root ptossein, which means to crouch or to cower; and it describes the poverty which is beaten to its knees. As it has been said, penÄ"s describes the man who has nothing superfluous; ptōchos describes the man who has nothing at all. So this beatitude becomes even more surprising. Blessed is the man who is abjectly and completely poverty-stricken. Blessed is the man who is absolutely destitute. (Barclay, W: Matthew 5 Commentary - Daily Study Bible online) Thayer writes that ptochos means "to be thoroughly frightened, to cower down or hide oneself for fear; hence, properly, one who slinks and crouches, often involving the idea of roving about in wretchedness (but it always had a bad sense till it was ennobled in the Gospels)... hence 1. In classical Greek from Homer down, reduced to beggary, begging, mendicant, asking alms: Luke 14:13,21; 16:20,22. 2. Poor, needy: Matt. 19:21; 26:9,11; Mark 10:21; 12:42,43; 14:5,7; Luke 18:22; 19:8; 21:3; John 12:5,6,8; 13:29; Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 6:10; Gal. 2:10; James 2:2,3,6; Rev. 13:16; in a broader sense, destitute of wealth, influence, position, honors; lowly, afflicted: Matt. 11:5; Luke 4:18 (from Isa. 61:1); Lk 6:20; 7:22; the poor of the human race, James 2:5; tropically, destitute of the Christian virtues and the eternal riches, Rev. 3:17; like the Latin inops, equivalent to helpless, powerless to accomplish an end: Gal. 4:9 (`bringing no rich endowment of spiritual treasure' (Lightfoot)). 3. Universally, lacking in anything, with a dative of the respect: as respects their spirit, i.e. destitute of the wealth of learning and intellectual culture which the schools afford (men of this class most readily gave themselves up to Christ's teaching and proved themselves fitted to lay hold of the heavenly treasure, Matt. 11:25; John 9:39; 1Cor. 1:26,27; (others make the idea more inward and ethical: `conscious of their spiritual need') Matt. 5:3 The majority of the NT uses of ptochos refer to one who is literally poor or economically disadvantaged, literally being forced to beg to survive! As used in Mt 5:3 ptochos is used figuratively to picture one who is spiritually disadvantaged, lacking spiritual worth or power and thus is spiritually destitute and helpless. In the context of Matthew 3 and Matthew 4 (especially Mt 3:2, 4:17) ptochos appears to refer to those who have heeded the message of John and Jesus to "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". They have admitted their need for God's mercy and turned away from their confidence in themselves and their reliance on their physical descent from Abraham (Mt 3:9). They have come to see themselves as spiritually impoverished and in need of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness. Paul uses ptochos as an adjective as he rebukes the Galatian church writing... But (contrast the time when they did not know God and were slaves to those which by nature are no gods) now that you have come to know God or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak (state of limited capacity, impotent) and worthless (ptochos - "poverty—stricken" practices, powerless to enrich, edify and equip and here a figurative picture of the religious practices of the Jews) elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? (Galatians 4:9) To be poor in spirit means to recognize your true condition before God and thus does not refer to one's natural disposition but to one's deliberate choice. It is the exact opposite of being rich in pride. You might say that being "poor in spirit" means to recognize one's spiritual bankruptcy or acknowledge their own helplessness in the eyes of God, on Whose omnipotence they rely. They sense their spiritual need and find it supplied in the Lord. Like the GNT says... “Blessed are they who feel their spiritual need.” Ptochos is used some 88 times in the Greek Septuagint or LXX Below are some uses of ptochos in the Greek LXX translation of the Hebrew Old Testament which convey a meaning similar to that convey by Jesus in the first beatitude. Note also that these Old Testament parallel passages support the conclusion that what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount is not "new" truth, but truths that readily can be found elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments. David cries out to the Lord in a number of psalms in which he uses the Hebrew word "ani" (Strong's 6041) which is translated by the Greek LXX by our word ptochos: Psalm 25:16 (Spurgeon's note) Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted Psalm 34:6 (Spurgeon's note) This poor man cried and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. Psalm 35:10 (Spurgeon's note) All my bones will say, "LORD, who is like Thee, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?" Psalm 40:17 (Spurgeon's note) Since I am afflicted and needy, Let the Lord be mindful of me; Thou art my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God. Psalm 69:29 (Spurgeon's note) But I am afflicted and in pain; May Thy salvation, O God, set me securely on high. Psalm 70:5 (Spurgeon's note) But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! Thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay. Psalm 86:1 (Spurgeon's note) A Prayer of David. Incline Thine ear, O LORD, and answer me; For I am afflicted and needy. David also testifies to Jehovah's salvation of a "poor" people declaring... 2 Samuel 22:28 "And Thou dost save an afflicted people; But Thine eyes are on the haughty whom Thou dost abase. In each of the previous prayers (and the testimony in 2 Samuel 22) by David the word "afflicted" or "poor" is the same Hebrew word ani (6041) which pictures one in some kind of disability or distress. William Barclay says that this word ani (and a related Hebrew word ebion/ebyown Strong's #34) has "a most interesting and significant development of meaning. The meaning has three stages. (i) They mean simply 'poor', in the sense of lacking in this world's goods (Deut. 15.4; 15.11). (ii) They go on to mean, because poor, therefore 'downtrodden and oppressed' (Amos 2.6; 8.4). (iii) It is then that they take their great leap in meaning. If a man is poor and downtrodden and oppressed, he has no influence on earth, no power, no prestige. He cannot look to men for help and when all the help and resources of earth are closed to him, he can only look to God. And, therefore, these words come to describe people who, because they have nothing on earth, have come to put their complete and total trust in God (Amos 5.12; Ps 10.2, 19:12, 17; 12.5; 14.6; 68.10). (Matthew 5 Commentary - Daily Study Bible online) In each of the above verse the Septuagint or LXX choose the Greek word ptochos to translate the Hebrew. So what is the point? Clearly ptochos is used in each of these prayers to describe on who is in distress and unable to relieve himself of this affliction, just as is the man or woman who experiences the poverty of spirit in Mt 5:3. David was a man who knew the meaning of being poor in spirit and of his need to constantly rely upon the provision and power of Jehovah. It follows that to be "poor is spirit" is not a one time event by which a person gains entree into the Kingdom of Heaven but is as it was with David (a man after God's own heart) a continual mindset which leads to a lifestyle of submission to and dependence upon His God. This is the man who is blessed, in a state of spiritual prosperity, even though the physical or emotional circumstances are far from "prosperous". This blessed state is thus clearly a paradox and can only reflect a supernatural work of God in a man or woman's heart. It is ultimately a foretaste of the fullness all the poor in spirit will experience eternally in the future Kingdom. BLEST ARE THE HUMBLE SOULS THAT SEE Blest are the humble souls that see Their emptiness and poverty; Treasures of grace to them are giv’n, And crowns of joy laid up in Heav’n. Blest are the men of broken heart, Who mourn for sin with inward smart; The blood of Christ divinely flows, A healing balm for all their woes. Blest are the meek, who stand afar From rage and passion, noise and war; God will secure their happy state, And plead their cause against the great. Blest are the souls that thirst for grace Hunger and long for righteousness; They shall be well supplied, and fed With living streams and living bread. Blest are the men whose bowels move And melt with sympathy and love; From Christ the Lord they shall obtain Like sympathy and love again. Blest are the pure, whose hearts are clean From the defiling powers of sin; With endless pleasure they shall see A God of spotless purity. Blest are the men of peaceful life, Who quench the coals of growing strife; They shall be called the heirs of bliss, The sons of God, the God of peace. Blest are the suff’rers who partake Of pain and shame for Jesus’ sake; Their souls shall triumph in the Lord; Glory and joy are their reward. ---Isaac Watts C H Spurgeon commenting on "poor in spirit" advises... Learn this lesson—not to trust Christ because you repent, but trust Christ to make you repent; not to come to Christ because you have a broken heart, but to come to him that he may give you a broken heart; not to come to him because you are fit to come, but to come to him because you are unfit to come. Your fitness is your unfitness. Your qualification is your lack of qualification. None ever considered the poor as Jesus did, but here he is speaking of a poverty of spirit, a lowliness of heart, an absence of self-esteem. Where that kind of spirit is found, it is sweet poverty In Isaiah we find another use of ptochos that parallels the meaning in Mt 5:3, in the famous verse Jesus quoted in the synagogue in Luke 4:18.... Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; (ptochos) He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; (See study on The Incredible Prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-3) Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." How unlike the world is Jesus' opening salvo, for the world of natural men would open more like... Blessed are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of the world. The paradox is that those who are spiritually poor are the very ones who are spiritually rich! Truly the foolishness of God is wiser than man (1Cor 1:25, 27-31). Jesus is flatly stating that it is not what a man does but what he is in the sight of God! John MacArthur explains that... The word commonly used for ordinary poverty was penichros, and is used of the widow Jesus saw giving an offering in the Temple. She had very little, but she did have “two small copper coins” (Luke 21:2). She was poor but not a beggar. One who is penichros poor has at least some meager resources. One who is ptōchos poor, however, is completely dependent on others for sustenance. He has absolutely no means of self-support. Because of a similar statement in Luke 6:20- “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”- some interpreters have maintained that the beatitude of Matthew 5:3 teaches material poverty. But sound hermeneutics (the interpretation of Scripture) requires that, when two or more passages are similar but not exactly alike, the clearer one explains the others, the more explicit clarifies the less explicit. By comparing Scripture with Scripture we see that the Matthew account is the more explicit. Jesus is speaking of a spiritual poverty that corresponds to the material poverty of one who is ptōchos. If Jesus were here advocating material poverty He would have contradicted many other parts of His Word-including the Sermon on the Mount itself (5:42)-that teach us to give financial help to the poor. If Jesus was teaching the innate blessedness of material poverty, then the task of Christians would be to help make everyone, including themselves, penniless. Jesus did not teach that material poverty is the path to spiritual prosperity. Those who are materially poor do have some advantages in spiritual matters by not having certain distractions and temptations; and the materially rich have some disadvantage by having certain distractions and temptations. But material possessions have no necessary relationship to spiritual blessings. Matthew makes clear that Jesus is here talking about the condition of the spirit, not of the wallet. (MacArthur, J: Matthew 1-7 Chicago: Moody Press) (Bolding added) Dwight Pentecost writes that ptochos which is... word translated “beggar” (Luke 16:20, 22) is the identical word translated “poor” in Matthew 5:3. The beggar was destitute, poverty-stricken, without any resources whatsoever. The words poor and beggar come from a root word which means “to cover” or “to cringe.” It so humiliated a man to confess he had nothing and was dependent on someone else that the very act of begging demeaned him. So the beggar would cover his face and crouch, or cower, as he held out his hand for an alm. He was ashamed to let the giver know his identity...In spiritual things, poor in spirit is the opposite not of self-esteem but of spiritual pride. It is the self-sufficiency that springs from spiritual pride that our Lord condemned. The New Testament records that the Pharisees were intensely proud, for they counted themselves as righteous; they deemed themselves to be righteous and to need nothing. They heard the Lord Jesus offer a true righteousness from God, and they spurned it. This word is addressed to them and to those who follow their path. The man who is characterized by spiritual pride will receive nothing from God; there can be no blessing of God upon him, for pride is no foundation for righteousness. Spiritual pride is not an evidence of holiness but of sinfulness. Spiritual pride can never produce happiness...The poor in spirit is the one from whom the ground of self-sufficiency has been taken. The poor in spirit is the heart on its knees. The poor in spirit is the one characterized by an attitude of utter dependence. (Pentecost, J. D. Design for living: Lessons in Holiness from the Sermon on the Mount. Kregel Publications) Oswald Chambers commenting on "poor in spirit" writes... The Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the heart of the natural man, and that is the very thing Jesus means it to do, because immediately we reach the point of despair we are willing to come to Jesus Christ as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”—that is the first principle of the Kingdom. As long as we have a conceited, self-righteous idea that we can do the thing if God will help us, God has to allow us to go on until we break the neck of our ignorance over some obstacle, then we will be willing to come and receive from Him. The bed-rock of Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility, “I cannot begin to do it.” Then, says Jesus, “Blessed are you.” That is the entrance, and it takes us a long while to believe we are poor. The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. (Chambers, O. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott) Price explains "poor in spirit" as follows... The first step to real happiness is an acknowledgement of spiritual poverty, the recognition of the fact I do not have in myself what it takes to be the person I was created to be. This is deeper than recognizing I fail, it is realizing I do not have the capacity within myself to do anything else! As Paul wrote, ‘I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature’ (Ro 7:18), more literally, ‘in my natural self’. Human beings have been so created that the Spirit of God within them is indispensable in their ability to function as intended. David wrote, ‘I said to the LORD, “You are my LORD; apart from you I have no good thing”’ (Ps 16:2)... When Paul says, ‘nothing good lives in me’, it is not that everything about him is bad! Elsewhere he lists some things about which he says he could boast (Phil 3:4-6), but he is saying that apart from the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ, everything else which may be good about me is ultimately good for nothing. I am like a car without an engine. It is to face this fact and acknowledge our own poverty of spirit which is the first step to real happiness. It is to this person Jesus says, ‘the kingdom of heaven is theirs’. All the riches of the kingdom of heaven are available to the person who recognizes their own bankruptcy without God." (Price, C. Focus on the Bible: Matthew) Warren Wiersbe writes that "poor in spirit" means to be humble, to have a correct estimate of oneself (Ro 12:3). It does not mean to be “poor spirited” and have no backbone at all! “Poor in spirit” is the opposite of the world’s attitudes of self-praise and self-assertion. It is not a false humility that says, “I am not worth anything, I can’t do anything!” It is honesty with ourselves: we know ourselves, accept ourselves, and try to be ourselves to the glory of God. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor) J C Ryle writes that "the poor in spirit" refers to He means the humble, and lowly-minded, and self-abased; he means those who are deeply convinced of their own sinfulness in God’s sight: these are people who are not “wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:21). They are not “rich” and have not “acquired wealth”; they do not fancy they “do not need a thing”; they regard themselves as “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17). Blessed are all such! Humility is the very first letter in the alphabet of Christianity. We must begin low, if we want to build high. (Ryle, J. C. Matthew) Lloyd-Jones comments that "poor is spirit" is ultimately a man's attitude towards himself...This is something which is not only not admired by the world; it is despised by it. You will never find a greater antithesis to the worldly spirit and outlook than that which you find in this verse. What emphasis the world places on its belief in self-reliance, self-confidence and self-expression! Look at its literature. If you want to get on in this world, it says, believe in yourself. That idea is absolutely controlling the life of men...Now in this verse we are confronted by something which is in utter and absolute contrast to that, and it is tragic to see how people view this kind of statement. Let me quote the criticism which a man offered a few years ago on that famous hymn of Charles Wesley, "Jesus, Lover of my soul". You will remember the verse in which Wesley says: Just and holy is Thy name, I am all unrighteousness; Vile and full of sin I am, Thou art full of truth and grace. (Play Jesus, Lover of My Soul) This he ridiculed and asked, 'What man desiring a post or job would dream of going to an employer and saying to him, "Vile and full of sin I am"? Ridiculous!' And he said it, alas, in the name of what he regards as Christianity. You see what a complete misunderstanding of this first Beatitude that reveals....we are not looking at men confronting one another, but we are looking at men face-to-face with God. And if one feels anything in the presence of God save an utter poverty of spirit, it ultimately means that you have never faced Him. That is the meaning of this Beatitude...To be 'poor in spirit' is not as popular even in the Church as it once was and always should be. Christian people must rethink these matters. Let us not take things on their face value; let us above all avoid being captivated by this worldly psychology; and let us realize from the outset that we are in the realm of a kingdom which is unlike everything that belongs to this 'present evil world'. (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount) (Bolding added) Dave Guzik notes that "poverty of spirit" is not a man's confession that he is by nature insignificant, or personally without value, for that would be untrue. Instead, it is a confession that he is sinful and rebellious and utterly without moral virtues adequate to commend him to God. The poor in spirit recognize that they have no spiritual "assets." They know they are spiritually bankrupt. With the word poor, Jesus uses the more severe term for poverty. It indicates someone who must beg for whatever they have or get. Poverty of spirit cannot be artificially induced by self-hatred; it is brought about by the Holy Spirit and our response to His working in our hearts. (see John 16:8-11, Acts 2:37, 16:29,30) For theirs is the kingdom of heaven: Those who are poor in spirit, so poor they must beg, are rewarded. They receive the kingdom of heaven, and poverty of spirit is an absolute prerequisite for receiving the kingdom of heaven, because as long as we harbor illusions about our own spiritual resources we will never receive from God what we absolutely need to be saved. The call to be poor in spirit is placed first for a reason, because it puts the following commands into perspective. They cannot be fulfilled by one's own strength, but only by a beggar's reliance on God's power (Guzik's Notes on Matthew 5) Lloyd- Jones goes on to summarize poor in spirit as follows... It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face-to-face with God. The answer is that you do not look at yourself or begin by trying to do things to yourself. That was the whole error of monasticism. Those poor men in their desire to do this said, 'I must go out of society, I must scarify my flesh and suffer hardship, I must mutilate my body.' No, no, the more you do that the more conscious will you be of yourself, and the less 'poor in spirit. The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God. Look at Him; and the more we look at Him, the more hopeless shall we feel by ourselves, and in and of ourselves, and the more shall we become 'poor in spirit'. Look at Him, keep looking at Him. Look at the saints, look at the men who have been most filled with the Spirit and used. But above all, look again at Him, and then you will have nothing to do to yourself. It will be done. You cannot truly look at Him without feeling your absolute poverty, and emptiness. (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount) In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus gives us a vivid illustration of one "poor in spirit"... And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 12 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' 13 "But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' (This is poverty of spirit!) 14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." 15 And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He might touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. Two men in the temple, both men prayed. Whose prayer did God hear? The religious Pharisee? Oh no, because he wasn’t praying, he was giving God his resume! Jesus said that God heard the other man’s prayer because his words came from a man who was "poor in spirit". Then Jesus gave the moral of the story: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (See Luke 18:9-14). One man was rich with pride, the other poor in spirit. One man thought highly of himself, the other felt his shortcomings. One man impressed with his own accomplishments, the other depressed by his sin. One man boasted, the other man begged. One man recommended himself to God, the other man pleaded for God’s mercy. One man was saved, the other lost. Only it wasn’t the “good” man who was saved. He ended up lost. And the “bad” man? He ended up saved. Alexander Maclaren in a sermon on this beatitude says that... This, the first of them, is dead in the teeth of flesh and sense, a paradox to the men who judge good and evil by things external and visible, but deeply, everlastingly, unconditionally, and inwardly true. All that the world commends and pats on the back, Christ condemns, and all that the world shrinks from and dreads, Christ bids us make our own, and assures us that in it we shall find our true blessing. ‘The poor in spirit,’ they are the happy men. The reason for the benediction is as foreign to law and earthly thoughts as is the benediction of which it is the reason — ‘for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ Poverty of spirit will not further earthly designs, nor be an instrument for what the world calls success and prosperity. But it will give us something better than earth, it will give us heaven. Do you think that that is better than earth, and should you be disposed to acquiesce in the benediction of those who may lose the world’s gifts but are sure to have heaven’s felicities? What is this poverty of spirit?...To me it seems to be a lowly and just estimate of ourselves, our character, our achievements, based upon a clear recognition of our own necessities, weaknesses, and sins...Two or three plain questions, to which the answers are quite as plain, ought to rip up this swollen bladder of self-esteem which we are all apt to blow. ‘What hast thou that thou hast not received?’ Where did you get it? How came you by it? How long is it going to last?... I suppose that we have all come out of nothing, and are anything, simply because God is everything. If He were to withhold His upholding and inbreathing power from any of us for one moment, we should shrivel into nothingness like a piece of paper calcined in the fire, and go back into that vacuity out of which His fiat, and His fiat alone, called us. And yet here we are, setting great store, some of us, by our qualities or belongings, and thinking ever so much of ourselves because we possess them, and all the while we are but great emptinesses; and the things of which we are so proud are what God has poured into us. A W Pink has some pithy comments on "blessed are the poor in spirit" writing that... There is a vast difference between this and being hard up in our circumstances. There is no virtue (and often no disgrace) in financial poverty as such, nor does it, of itself, produce humility of heart, for anyone who has any real acquaintance with both classes soon discovers there is just as much pride in the indigent as there is in the opulent. This poverty of spirit is a fruit that grows on no merely natural tree. It is a spiritual grace wrought by the Holy Spirit in those whom He renews. By nature we are well pleased with ourselves, and mad enough to think that we deserve something good at the hands of God. Let men but conduct themselves decently in a civil way, keeping themselves from grosser sins, and they are rich in spirit, pride filling their hearts, and they are self-righteous. And nothing short of a miracle of grace can change the course of this stream. Nor is real poverty of spirit to be found among the great majority of the religionists of the day: very much the reverse. How often we see advertised a conference for “promoting the higher life,” but who ever heard of one for furthering the lowly life? Many books are telling us how to be “filled with the Spirit,” but where can we find one setting forth what it means to be spiritually emptied—emptied of self-confidence, self-importance, and self-righteousness? Alas, if it be true that, “That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15), it is equally true that what is of great price in His sight is despised by men—by none more so than by modern Pharisees, who now hold nearly all the positions of prominence in Christendom. Almost all of the so-called “ministry” of this generation feeds pride, instead of starving the flesh; puffs up, rather than abases; and anything which is calculated to search and strip is frowned upon by the pulpit and is unpopular with the pew. And what is poverty of spirit? It is the opposite of that haughty, self-assertive and self-sufficient disposition which the world so much admires and praises. It is the very reverse of that independent and defiant attitude which refuses to bow to God, which determines to brave things out, which says with Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” To be “poor in spirit” is to realize that I have nothing, am nothing, and can do nothing and have need of all things. Poverty of spirit is a consciousness of my emptiness, the result of the Spirit’s work within. It issues from the painful discovery that all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6, Phil 3:7-9, Rev 3:17). It follows the awakening that my best performances are unacceptable, yea, an abomination to the thrice Holy One. Poverty of spirit evidences itself by its bringing the individual into the dust before God, acknowledging his utter helplessness and deservingness of hell. It corresponds to the initial awakening of the prodigal in the far country, when he “began to be in want.” Poverty of spirit may be termed the negative side of faith. It is that realization of my utter worthlessness which precedes the laying hold of Christ, the eating of His flesh and drinking His blood. It is the Spirit emptying the heart of self that Christ may fill it: it is a sense of need and destitution. This first Beatitude, then, is foundational, describing a fundamental trait which is found in every regenerated soul. The one who is poor in spirit is nothing in his own eyes, and feels that his proper place is in the dust before God. He may, through false teaching or worldliness, leave this place, but God knows how to bring him back; and in His faithfulness and love He will do so, for it is the place of blessing for His children. How to cultivate this God-honoring spirit is revealed in Matthew 11:29. (Pink, A. W. An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount) (Bolding added) Expositor's Bible Commentary adds that... To be poor in spirit is not to lack courage but to acknowledge spiritual bankruptcy. It confesses one's unworthiness before God and utter dependence on him. Therefore those who interpret the Sermon on the Mount as law and not gospel...stumble at the first sentence...The kingdom of heaven is not given on the basis of race (cf. Mt 3:9), earned merits, the military zeal and prowess of Zealots, or the wealth of a Zacchaeus. It is given to the poor, the despised publicans (Ed note: most of these tax collectors were actually relatively rich in terms of "mammon"), the prostitutes, those who are so "poor" they know they can offer nothing and do not try. They cry for mercy and they alone are heard. These themes recur repeatedly in Matthew and present the sermon's ethical demands in a setting that does not treat the resulting conduct as conditions for entrance to the kingdom that people themselves can achieve. All must begin by confessing that by them selves they can achieve nothing....in the last book of the canon, an established church must likewise recognize its precarious position when it claims to be rich and fails to see its own poverty (Rev 3:14-22). The kingdom of heaven (Mt 3:2; 4:17) belongs to the poor in spirit; it is they who enjoy Messiah's reign and the blessings he brings. They joyfully accept his rule and participate in the life of the kingdom (Mt 7:14). (Expositors Bible Commentary) John Piper comments on "poor in spirit" asking first... How does it get started, so that we have the power to love and can prove that God is at work within us? The answer was Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We receive Jesus and his kingdom through bankruptcy—by admitting the poverty of spirit. The answer was Mark 10:15 Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all. We receive Jesus and his kingdom by admitting that we are as helpless as a little child. The answer was Mark 2:17 It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. We receive Jesus and his kingdom by admitting that we are sick and in need of a spiritual physician—namely, Jesus. In other words the commands of the Sermon on the Mount are not the first things in the matter of our relationship to Jesus and his Father. The first things are free gospel promises that he will be the Forgiver and Healer for our sin-sickness, the Father for our helpless childlikeness, and the Supplier for our poverty stricken heart. All of that we receive by faith. Jesus said to the prostitute who wept at his feet Your sins have been forgiven . . . your faith has saved you; go in peace. (Luke 7:48, 50) This is how the Christian life starts. It doesn't start by measuring up. It starts by realizing that we don't measure up. We are poverty stricken, helpless as a child, and sin-sick in need of a Great Physician. Then we hear the gospel news that Jesus "came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45); and we hear the free offer that by trusting him our sins we will be forgiven, God will be our Father and the power of the kingdom will come into our lives, and we will have the help we need to live out the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) We are grafted into the vine by faith in the all-satisfying promises of Christ. And we abide there by faith—drawing on His power and His enabling. So the fruit we produce, like loving our enemies, is not produced in our own strength, but by the strength of the Vine. "Without me you can do nothing." (From the sermon But I Say to You, Love Your Enemies, Part 2 ) (Bolding added) Barnes rightly remarks that... It is remarkable that Jesus began his ministry in this manner, so unlike all others. Other teachers had taught that happiness was to be found in honor, or riches, or splendor, or sensual pleasure. Jesus overlooked all those things, and fixed his eye on the poor and the humble, and said that happiness was to be found in the lowly vale of poverty more than in the pomp and splendors of life. (Barnes' Notes on the NT) FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: hoti auton estin (PAI) e basileia ton ouranon: (Mt 3:2; 8:11; Mark 10:14; James 2:5) THE KINGDOM It has been well said that the only kingdom that will prevail in this world is the kingdom that is not of this world! Amen! Billy Graham adds that... The longings and dreams of mankind will be fulfilled as God establishes His glorious Kingdom on earth for the enjoyment of mankind. (Ed: But there is a caveat - Sadly, not all of mankind but only that portion of mankind that has by grace through faith received Messiah as their sole/soul Savior and reigning King!) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew_53.htm#poor