Explanation of the First Beatitude
This commandment states the following:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
These words should be understood as follows. Poor people are those who have nothing. Usually the poor are not ashamed to ask others for help and acknowledge that they receive their food and clothing as a gift. The poor in spirit, unlike ordinary poor people, realize that they possess nothing of their own in their spirituality (in their soul), because all their spiritual riches (including talents and abilities) they have received from the Lord God. Such people do not boast or pride themselves before God or before men, but manifest humility and meekness, kindness and love toward God and neighbor. These people ask God for spiritual food, and the Lord God feeds them with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. These fruits include: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
That is, the poor in spirit are people who did not “become futile in their thoughts” (Romans 1:21), who recognized their sinfulness and shortcomings and, having renounced selfish impulses and pride, understood that without God they are nothing and will achieve nothing. The Lord called such blessed poverty spiritual. It represents a certain state of the human mind and heart, characterized by the fact that a person opposes “the stubbornness of his heart” (Jeremiah 23:17) with openness of soul before God, when a person is free from vain thoughts and evil deeds. Only such a person, who is capable of living with God in his heart, can receive God’s Grace and become blessed. Jesus Christ Himself was the model of spiritual poverty. He was not only poor in the literal sense of the word, having no property except clothing and having no place “to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20), but He also did nothing of Himself, fulfilling the Will of His Heavenly Father.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing” (John 5:19).
In the time of Christ, the religious leaders of the people of Israel considered themselves people endowed with rich spiritual gifts. They limited their religious service to formal observance of rituals, which was regarded as righteousness, while they themselves strove for earthly power, pleasures, wealth, and honors, displaying arrogance and pride. The prayer of the Pharisee “God, I thank You that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11) clearly expresses the mood and thoughts of their entire class and demonstrates the national arrogance of the Jews. However, there were also Jews who considered themselves wretched and miserable, blind, poor, and naked spiritually. It was they who thirsted for “the grace of God that brings salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11) to appear. These people, recognizing their shortcomings and sinfulness, prayed to God like the tax collector in his prayer: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). It is precisely to such people—who sincerely repent of their sins, recognize and value the help of Jesus Christ, and desire to follow the path of doing good—that Jesus Christ offers to exchange the burden of their sin for the riches of His righteousness, saying:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
To such people Christ offers a happy life. Happiness, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, is the Kingdom of God. To be happy, one must be a member of the Kingdom of God, that is, live with God in the soul, that is, serve God, live according to His commandments, do good deeds. The Kingdom of God begins on earth (in a person’s earthly life) and continues in heaven in Eternity. According to the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven is Blessedness, Perfect Good, Beauty, and Love. This Kingdom is eternal. It does not depend on chance. No one can take it away from a person. It is precisely this Kingdom of Heaven that the poor in spirit will inherit, of whom the Apostle Paul said:
“We are poor, yet making many rich; we have nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
Because their spiritual wealth opens to them (and through their example to other people as well) the way into the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus, the first Beatitude speaks of people who recognize their shortcomings and their sinfulness, repent of it, and understand themselves that without God’s help they will achieve nothing. Such people do not display pride, egoism, or boasting, but become meek and humble—that is, poor in spirit. For this they will receive a reward from God in the form of becoming blessed, that is, happy and joyful. Therefore, the first Beatitude is the main condition of human life and states that Christians must abandon temptations and earthly riches and, in poverty of spirit, follow Christ through life, doing good, manifesting humility and meekness, and being freed from sin and the lusts of the perishable world. Because:
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17).