and, having opened his mouth, he taught them, saying,
Matthew's Gospel has spent four chapters presenting the King. Here the King begins to speak. One short line of narrative carries a great deal: who was listening, what He taught, and by what right He taught it.
The setting itself is affectionate. The teaching that follows also has a shape.
And now we read, "When He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them" (Matt. 5:1-2). Oh, how He loves to have His own near Himself. You will notice that there are nine "Blessednesses." You will also see that they divide into first seven, and then two.
The mouth that opens here has its own story across the Gospels.
As a dependent Man He relied on God's mouth, the Giver and Sustainer of life (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4). In His earthly ministry the Lord opened His mouth to teach and bless (Matt. 5:2ff). And as the Revealer of secrets He opened His mouth as foretold by the prophet (Matt. 13:35).
Verse 1 mentions the crowds, but the word "them" points at a narrower group. Reading the sermon well starts with getting this right.
In that discourse, then, the Lord had His own disciples right in front of Him... The disciples were a group who had truly received Jesus as the Messiah by the Spirit of God. Judas was an exception, and so was any other special case like him, if there were any. They had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them, that they should go and bear fruit, and that their fruit should remain. They were gathered around Him as His witnesses. Even now they were separated from the rest of the nation in a measure — that is, in faith and affection to His person. Soon His death and resurrection would separate them far more fully, and so would the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
A teacher going up a mountain to speak to Israel had happened once before, and the contrast is the point.
The first section in the fifth chapter, from verse one to verse sixteen, is before us. Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them. Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, went up into the mountain where he received the law. But here is a greater one than Moses: the Mediator of a better covenant, and the King at the same time. He begins with blessings, the blessings of grace.
What follows verse 2 is often read as advice for anyone. Commentators here read it as instruction for people already inside the kingdom.
As to the sermon, it is instruction in the righteousness proper to all who enter the Kingdom of the heavens. Only those born of the Spirit can meet the state of soul that is blessed in the Lord's eyes. It is not a requirement as at Sinai, but Christ's description of those who suit the Kingdom. Not a word of grace to sinners is spoken. It is not the gospel of God's grace to the lost. It is His words for His disciples, and personal obedience is the rock at its close.
Miss that, and the sermon becomes a ladder for self-improvement.
People do not understand that the Lord was addressing those in relationship with Himself as subjects of grace. So they assume that man in the flesh can produce these moral traits, apart from the new nature given at new birth. And so the whole truth of the gospel is set aside. This is why many admire the Sermon on the Mount while rejecting the truth of the gospel as set out in the New Testament.
He quotes no one. He argues from no earlier teacher.
Note, too, His authority. If it is the glory of other teachers to hide behind their theme, it is not so with Him. He brings His Person to the front, and that without apology, in the most simple and unaffected way. He spoke with authority without stopping to say why, and commanded without declaring His right... He always honoured and fulfilled Holy Scripture. Yet He cites no previous authority for what He says: He taught them as One having authority and not as the scribes.
- He sits — the King takes the teacher's seat and draws His own close, because He loves to have them near Him.
- He opens — the same mouth that lived on God's word and revealed hidden things now opens to teach and bless.
- He addresses — the "them" is the disciples. He chose them, and faith and affection for His person already set them apart from the nation.
- He surpasses — Moses climbed a mountain and came down with law. A greater than Moses climbs one and starts with blessing.
- He commands — this is kingdom righteousness for people already born of the Spirit. The One who speaks it cites no authority above His own.
Blessed [are] the poor in spirit, for *theirs* is the kingdom of the heavens.
The Sermon on the Mount opens by describing who is blessed in the kingdom, and it starts with a quality that runs against everything people admire. Everything turns on what "poor in spirit" means, and on how a kingdom can belong to people who have nothing.
One writer locates this poverty inside a person rather than in their circumstances, and tests it with an everyday example:
The first beatitude, notice, lies at the basis of all the others. It is not only a distinct feature in itself, but it should mark all the others and all who belong to Jesus. Surely nothing can be so necessary to a soul that has to do with God as poverty of spirit. Not poverty in circumstances only, or poverty in words and ways, but in spirit. It is poverty in the heart, the feelings, the inward man, and all before the living God. How often we may have said about someone who has injured us, "I freely forgive him, and I will be the same to him as ever. But I can't forget it for all that." That is not being "poor in spirit."
Another writer traces the order of these blessings and shows where a person enters it:
He really sketches for us a moral picture of the godly remnant who will finally enter the kingdom. He mentions eight things. They begin with poverty of spirit and end with persecution, and their order forms a sequence. Repentance produces poverty of spirit, and there all must start. Then comes the mourning and the meekness that a true sight of oneself produces. After that comes a thirst for the righteousness which is only found in God.
One writer sums up the phrase in three denials:
To be poor in spirit is to have low thoughts of self, to realise that before God I am nothing, I have nothing, I deserve nothing. It would be quite consistent with standing up for what is due to God.
Set that against what people admire, and the contrast is total:
Nothing more contrary to man! What people call "a man of spirit" is exactly the opposite of being poor in spirit. A man of spirit is one who — as Cain was — is determined not to be beaten; a soul who would fight it out with God Himself. He who is "poor in spirit" is the very opposite of this. It is a person who is broken, who feels that the dust is his right place.
Some read the blessing as being about people with little money. The wording itself answers them:
This idea rests on Luke 4: "And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." There the words "in spirit" do not appear. But there is no ground in this text for such an idea… It is a question of the inner man in contrast with the outer. A man who is poor as to this world's goods may have a proud, unbending spirit, while the rich may be truly humble.
These traits describe Christ Himself before they describe anyone else:
We know from the beatitudes how He pronounces blessed those who through grace are like Him poor in spirit. In truth nearly all of these beatitudes are just a description of what Christ was, though given as a character to which blessing belongs. Poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart — who was like Him, the great Peacemaker?
Nobody arrives at this by effort or temperament:
Everyone who is born of God has by grace these characteristics. Poor in spirit is the very first characteristic. The unsaved sinner knows nothing of it. It is altogether the work of the Holy Spirit. It means to take the right place before God, which is in the dust in absolute helplessness. It is the continued attitude of a saved person on the earth — poverty in spirit and entire dependence on the Lord.
One writer separates going to heaven later from living under heaven's rule now:
This is not a question of people going to heaven by and by, but of heaven ruling them now. It is how to go on before you get to heaven.
One writer puts the exchange as a paradox:
This poverty is your riches. You may have the world's riches and yet be poor; you cannot have this poverty without being rich. Poverty of spirit entitles you to Christ's riches.
- Start — repentance produces poverty of spirit. The other seven beatitudes rest on this first one.
- Inward — not an empty purse but a low view of self: I am nothing, I have nothing, I deserve nothing.
- Opposite — the world's "man of spirit" refuses to be beaten; the poor in spirit accepts the dust as his right place.
- Given — no unsaved person has this; it is the Spirit's work, and it is a settled attitude, not a mood.
- Rich — heaven rules such a person now, and Christ's riches already belong to them.
Blessed they that mourn, for *they* shall be comforted.
The second blessing in the Sermon on the Mount puts sorrow and happiness in one sentence. We do not usually put them together. Two questions follow. What sort of mourning did the Lord mean? And when does the comfort come?
Everyone carries a private list of who counts as fortunate. One writer sets that list beside the Lord's and lets the clash stand.
Most people would say, "Blessed are the rich, who can surround themselves with every comfort. Blessed are the joyful, the high-spirited, the independent, who know nothing of hunger and thirst." But the Lord came from heaven. He knew the character that suited the kingdom of heaven. He says, "Blessed are the poor, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst." That turns the judgment of everyone upside down. It contradicts the thought every human heart holds dear. Yet what a mercy it is for all of us that happiness does not depend on our circumstances, or on how much we own, but on the state of the mind — in one word, on character.
One commentator rules out the obvious reading and names what is meant instead.
Do not read the mourning that comes next as grief over personal sin. It is grief over the results of sin, over the way things now are on the earth. That is how our Lord grieved and mourned.
That sorrow looks outward, at other people, which is what separates it from the blessing before it.
Being poor in spirit is a matter between the soul and God alone. A person could hold it perfectly with nobody at all to mourn over. But to be a "mourner" here means something else. It means being moved to the heart by the condition of those around us, above all their moral and spiritual condition.
Grief by itself is no credential. Tears can flow from a heart that has never been touched where it matters.
There is a mourning that is far from making one blessed. Many can weep over a dead child who cannot mourn over a crucified Saviour. Worldly sorrows hasten our funerals. Worldly grief produces death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
He did not describe a heart He lacked Himself. The blessing is a portrait of Him.
He was, while on earth, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases. Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus and over Jerusalem. In that night of deepest gloom He offered up prayers and pleas, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death (Hebrews 5:7). He was the great mourner and He was comforted; heard because of His reverence, and raised from the dead.
One writer turns this into a question for us.
Do we not find ourselves in a scene where everything is opposed to God? Surely! Can we then love the Lord Jesus Christ, and pass through this scene, and not be mourners? Was not He a mourner when He passed through it?
This sorrow can turn into criticism of others. Three men from the older Scriptures show the alternative.
Do we pass by without caring? Or do we set ourselves above such things and judge others in self-righteousness? … We find such mourning in the Old Testament. Nehemiah said to King Artaxerxes: "Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins?" Daniel and Ezra also mourned over the unfaithfulness of God's people. … They confessed their people's sin and included themselves in their guilt. They understood that they themselves were no better and that they were part of this people. That is why God owned them and answered them.
The promise does not wait only for the future. One writer describes a grieving woman who met Jesus and found comfort on the spot.
She looked up into His face through her tears, and Jesus wept. Was she not at that moment most blessedly comforted? She had known that He loved her before, but she had never known that He loved her like that. His tears were more eloquent than words, and she found that His sympathy was greater than her sorrow.
One writer reads the promise forward, to a mourning still ahead for the Jewish people.
The believing part of the Jewish people will also go through deep mourning during the great tribulation. That comes just before Christ appears. … But the Lord Himself will comfort them too: "the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem" (Zechariah 1:17).
- Reversed — The world calls the rich and carefree blessed. Christ calls the mourners blessed, because blessing rests on character, not circumstances.
- Directed — This mourning is not grief over a death, and not just regret over personal sin. It is sorrow over what sin has done to everything around us.
- Tested — Weeping proves nothing on its own; many cry at a graveside who have never mourned over a crucified Saviour.
- Shared — Christ was the great mourner, and He was comforted. His followers mourn with Him. Like Nehemiah, Daniel and Ezra, they count themselves inside the guilt they grieve.
- Answered — Comfort comes now in His sympathy, and comes in full when He appears — nothing wept in His name is forgotten.
Blessed the meek, for *they* shall inherit the earth.
Jesus has already blessed the poor in spirit and those who mourn. Now He blesses a third group: the meek. Their reward is not private comfort but the earth itself. Two questions follow: what is meekness, and how do the meek come to own the earth?
One writer defines meekness by pointing to Jesus, who called Himself meek, and to the day He said it.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5). I believe that has its full application to the godly remnant of Israel later on. But the principle is of deep value to us. What is it to be meek? It is to be like Him who said down here, "I am meek and lowly in heart." He said that in Matthew 11, on a very dark day. You could not imagine a darker day. John was doubting Him, and Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum — the towns where His greatest works had been done — were rejecting Him. What is His resource? He turns to His Father, and takes everything from Him. He falls back on His Father's love, and perfect wisdom in all His circumstances. What is it then to be meek and lowly? It is to take everything, as He took it, from the hand of God.
Meekness is easily mistaken for having no backbone. Two Old Testament men settle that: Abram, who gave up his right to land for his nephew Lot, and Moses.
Meekness contrasts with the bold boasting of man, but is far from being a sign of weakness. It was no sign of weakness in Abram when he gave up his right to Lot, as his exploits in the next chapter show. Moses was the meekest man in all the earth, but there was none so valiant as he.
One writer reads the beatitudes as lessons in order. The first shows the soul what it is before God. The second is the groaning that comes from living in this world. Meekness is the third.
The great advance in the third class seems to be this. The soul has so grown in grace that the questioning, reasoning, self-willed spirit no longer shows itself in this scene of trial. Instead the disciple meekly bows his head in submission to the Father's will, and learns from Jesus to be meek and lowly in heart. After all, in these circumstances it is a question of either self-will or submission.
The beatitudes are not a distant ideal. They describe Jesus Himself. He speaks with a faithful remnant in view — the godly few left in Israel.
In examining the beatitudes, we shall find that this portion in general gives the character of Christ Himself. They assume two things. First, the meek will come to possess the land of Israel. Second, people will persecute the faithful remnant — those truly righteous in their ways, who asserted the rights of the true King. Heaven was set before them as the hope that would sustain their hearts.
One writer explains why meekness ends in an inheritance:
Meekness, which ends in the inheritance (see Matt. 5:5), appears to be that state of soul that makes us willing to be nothing until the promised inheritance comes. The Lord Jesus (in whom was all perfection) fully expressed it. Though Lord of all, He was content to have nothing; and the kingdom is a reward of His meekness.
The promise turns the present order of ownership upside down.
In Psalm 37 the meek shall inherit the earth, and this verse is a quotation of it. The people who own the earth now are usually great conquerors. Here is the very opposite. Those whom men trample underfoot are the ones God says will inherit the earth, and at a good time. The great and blessed pattern is the One who, when He was insulted, did not insult in return. You cannot ignore the wrongdoing that is going on, but you can commit yourself to Him who judges righteously.
Commentators differ on who the promise covers. Some tie it to Israel alone:
This is promised to the godly Jews who will inherit the earth. The Church does not inherit the earth, but hers is a heavenly possession. … So this promise has nothing at all to do with the Church. It is a kingdom promise for the godly in Israel.
Others hear the Lord widening it:
Now this enlarges the promise, so that it applies beyond the borders of Jacob and Judah. The meek of all peoples will inherit the earth, when Heaven's kingdom is at last set up over the whole world.
- Source. Meekness is taking everything from the hand of God, as Jesus did on His darkest day.
- Strength. It is not weakness — Abram gave up his choice of land, Moses was the meekest and the bravest.
- Growth. It is the third lesson: self-will surrendered, the head bowed to the Father's will.
- Waiting. The meek are willing to be nothing until the inheritance comes; Christ, Lord of all, held nothing.
- Reversal. Today conquerors own the earth. One day those trampled underfoot will receive it. Commentators differ on whether that promise belongs to Israel alone or to the meek of every nation.
Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for *they* shall be filled.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Blessed the merciful, for *they* shall find mercy.
The fifth Beatitude turns from what a person is before God to what he is toward others. Commentators read it as the start of a new group of blessings. They press one question: can anyone show mercy who has never felt his own need of it?
Writers see a design in the order of the Beatitudes.
We now come to what we may call the second section of the Beatitudes. They fall into two groups, four and three — a division not uncommon in Scripture. Righteousness marks the first four: what is due to God. Grace marks the last three: the activities of grace towards others.
Mercy is not one item on a list of virtues. It is the ground on which God meets a world of sin, and its promise reaches further than pardon.
God takes His stand on nothing more than His mercy. It is the active principle of His being in a world of sin. One thing alone makes salvation possible for a single soul: there is mercy in God. He is rich in mercy. There is no limit to His mercy... It is not only a question of the forgiveness of their sins, but of mercy in everything... they shall taste afresh what the mercy of God is towards their own souls, in showing mercy towards others.
The word has a precise sense. It answers misery, and it does not stop at feeling.
Mercy is the emotion of the soul in the face of misery or distress, and the help that results from this inner emotion. Mercy is not the same as grace. Grace is undeserved favour granted to someone who has become a guilty offender.
Both words appear side by side in God's own self-description to Moses, and the difference shows in what each supplies.
He is merciful to forgive, and gracious to help in every time of need.
Only one kind of person becomes merciful: the debtor who knows the size of his own debt.
That is what God is. He delights in mercy, so Micah tells us. It is only those who realise that "nothing but mercy will do for me" who will be merciful. You get a picture of the wonderful mercy shown to Israel in the parable of the man who owed a huge debt. He was unconscious of the mercy that had been shown to him. Whatever a person does to us, they can never owe us what we owe to God. If we are conscious of that, it will make us tender towards others.
The Lord who spoke this line lived it first.
When the Lord Jesus says "Blessed are the merciful…", He means those who have experienced this mercy of God. As disciples of their Lord and Master, they now follow His example. How often we read in the Gospels that He was moved with compassion! He was full of mercy and full of heartfelt sympathy. He healed the sick, gave food to the hungry and gave back her son alive to a mourning mother. Yes, He was the true merciful Samaritan. At the end of His parable He could say to the scribe who had come to test Him, "You go, and do likewise."
You can give in a way that humiliates. That is not the Lord's way.
Do not give to the poor as you would throw a bone to a dog. See the grace with which Jesus bends over the poor man. As if He were his servant, He asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" He did not take a place of obvious superiority. He gave him to know and feel that He was dealing with him in love and grace, and drew the heart of the helpless one entirely to Himself. The way of the world is to patronise, and to be esteemed as benefactors; and many will give for the sake of this honour.
The return promised is explained as a settled rule in how God governs His people day by day.
On the cross Christ took the consequences for eternity of every believer's sins. That is an unchanging fact. But as to our conduct in this world, God's government holds to an unalterable principle: "whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Psalm 18:25-26 states another broad principle of His government: "With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure."
Believers meet that mercy again at the point of need.
The words in Hebrews 4:16 are especially beautiful. They show that we receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need when we come to the throne of grace in prayer. The Lord Jesus is there as our "merciful and faithful high priest."
- Received — Mercy starts with mercy received. Only the person who knows that nothing but mercy will do for him becomes merciful toward others.
- Defined — Mercy meets misery with help. Grace is undeserved favour to the guilty.
- Reflected — The merciful copy their Master. He was moved with compassion, He healed and fed, and He said, "You go, and do likewise."
- Manner — How you give matters. No patronising, no bone thrown to a dog, but the Lord's own way of drawing the helpless one near.
- Returned — You reap what you sow under God's government. The merciful keep tasting mercy, at the throne of grace and in every time of need.
Blessed the pure in heart, for *they* shall see God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Blessed the peace-makers, for *they* shall be called sons of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Blessed they who are persecuted on account of righteousness, for *theirs* is the kingdom of the heavens.
The list of blessings ends with one for people who are attacked for doing right. Why does living God's way cost something, and what does the Lord promise in return?
The first seven blessings describe character. This one describes what that character brings on the disciple:
This verse stands apart from the seven blessings before it. They deal with what true disciples of the Lord Jesus are like and how they behave. Here the Lord speaks about the results of their righteous behaviour. As long as He does not reign as King of righteousness, people who live by God's principles and thoughts will face persecution and suffering.
Righteousness here is a way of living, not a theory. The world admires much of it — until it costs someone:
Practical righteousness means living by the Word of God and His principles. The world values love of the truth, honesty, faithfulness and respect for other people too… But suppose an employer asked his Christian employee to hide the truth in a situation that was awkward for him. Suppose he asked him to tell a lie instead, or to help with a dishonest deal. What will happen when the employee says: "I can't do this, because it does not agree with the Word of God"? … Many a believer has lost his job because he would not share in the unrighteousness of this world.
Verse 10 and verse 11 are not saying the same thing twice. One suffering keeps the conscience clean; the other answers Christ's claim on the heart:
So the two kinds of persecution in verses 10 to 12 bring in the double character we find in the letters — suffering for righteousness' sake, and suffering for Christ's sake. These are two completely different things. Where righteousness is the question, a person is simply brought to the point. If I do not stand and suffer here, my conscience will be stained. But this is in no way suffering for Christ's sake. In short, conscience is what comes in where righteousness is the question. Suffering for Christ's sake is not a question of open sin, but of His grace and its claims on my heart.
This difference runs through the rest of Scripture too, and one is greater than the other:
If we suffer for righteousness' sake, we are happy — and we are still more blessed if we suffer for His name… The Lord Himself makes this difference between suffering for righteousness and suffering for Christ (Matthew 5:10-11), and so does Peter (1 Peter 2:20; 3:17; 4:14).
The reward here repeats the one given to the poor in spirit at the start of the list:
Here the list clearly begins over again. The first blessing was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and the next three were all marked by righteousness. Poverty of spirit is the first thing God works in a newly born soul… But here the point is not so much what they are, as what others make their lot. The last two blessings speak of what the world hands out to them. The first four are marked by righteousness within — the last three by grace within.
The promise is not that the pressure will lift today. The present order is temporary:
If you are poor in spirit, if you do not stand up for your rights, what do you get in this world? You get persecution. People laugh at you as a madman. Here is the difference between this world as it is now and the coming age when the King reigns: now righteousness suffers, then righteousness will reign. For now you must do good, suffer for it, and bear it patiently, because the kingdom is hidden and the King is out of sight… This suffering may come in many shapes — in your business, your family, or from your neighbour.
Many assume persecution means violence. The Lord's own wording widens it:
Let us be careful not to become persecutors ourselves. Some think there is no persecution except fire and sword. Yes, there is persecution of the tongue… You can kill a man in his good name as truly as in his body. A good name is as precious as costly ointment. To strike another person in his name is what our Saviour calls persecution.
- Character first. The first seven blessings shape who a disciple is. This one shows what that life brings while the King is still rejected.
- Righteousness defined. It is living by God's Word in daily matters — the honesty an employer praises until it costs him something.
- Conscience engaged. You suffer for righteousness when saying no is the only way to keep a clean conscience. You suffer for Christ's sake when His claims draw out your heart.
- Kingdom promised. The same reward given to the poor in spirit closes the list — the kingdom belongs to those the world pushes out.
- Order reversed. Now righteousness suffers and the kingdom is hidden. When the King reigns in the open, righteousness will reign with Him.