(Note: While this post was written with elders’ wives and other Christian women in mind, we hope all of our readers will benefit from it and share it with others who might enjoy it.)
“I’m so blessed!” That’s what we say when we have robust health, a happy family life, a steady paycheck, a lovely house, a stocked fridge, or a relaxing vacation—and we should. Those are gifts from God, and woe to us if we fail to recognize them as such.
But how often do we hear this? “I’m blessed because my chronic illness makes me weak. I’m blessed because I’m grieving the death of a loved one. I’m blessed by my disability. I’m blessed that I got laid off at work. I’m blessed because my coworkers shun me now that they know I’m a Christian.”
Strange as it sounds, in God’s economy, might the latter be more accurate?
The Beatitudes and the Future Kingdom
As the opening lines of the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes are some of the first words Jesus spoke during his public ministry, so they deserve our close attention. These nine statements form a character sketch of Jesus himself and of those who are fit to reign with him in his future kingdom. Notice why Jesus says such people will be blessed:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:2-12).
Thomas Constable explains the significance of the way this list is structured. “The first and last beatitudes give the reason for blessedness: ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ This phrase forms an inclusio or envelope that surrounds the remaining beatitudes,” he writes. “The inclusio is a literary device that provides unity. Speakers and writers used it, and still use it, to indicate that everything within the two uses of this term refers to the entity mentioned. Here that entity is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, this literary form shows that all the beatitudes deal with the kingdom of heaven.”
What does this tell us? Believers who embody the beatitudes may have great sorrow in this life, but they have a lot to look forward to afterwards. The beatitudes draw a direct line between our current sufferings and our future happiness.
William MacDonald explained that believers’ service for the Lord will be reviewed at the judgment seat of Christ (the bema): “Rewards for faithful service . . . are linked with rule in Christ’s kingdom. The extent to which a disciple will rule is determined by the measure of his devotion and self-expenditure.” He went on to say that our earthly life is “‘training time for reigning time’ . . . Christians will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back and sets up His kingdom on earth.”
Believers who embody the Beatitudes may have great sorrow in this life,
but they have a lot to look forward to afterwards.
The Beatitudes draw a direct line
between our current sufferings and our future happiness.
The Bible teaches that salvation (entrance into the kingdom of heaven) is entirely free, based solely on our faith in Jesus as Savior, but that rewards and responsibility (inheritance in the kingdom) await those believers who serve Christ faithfully in their earthly lives. These rewards include crowns (1 Cor. 9:24-27, 2 Tim. 4:7-8, James 1:12, 1 Peter 5:1-4, Rev. 2:10), varying degrees of authority in Christ’s future kingdom (Luke 19:17-19), and an expanded ability to serve the Lord in that kingdom (Luke 19:11-27, Matt. 25:14-30). Greg Brown summarizes each of these in his overview of the judgment seat of Christ on Bible.org.
Laboring hard for the Lord is worth it when we consider the joy that lies ahead. But the beatitudes tell us it isn’t just about what we do; it’s about who we are. At the core of a life lived faithfully for Christ is a heart of humble, Christlike character—the character described in the nine beatitudes.
Love What Brings You Low
If our experience in God’s eternal kingdom is based on our Christlikeness in this comparably short earthly life, then the beatitudes are like keys that unlock our future. They show us exactly the kind of people we need to be in our fleeting days on earth in order to enjoy our future with Christ to the greatest possible extent.
If Jesus says “blessed are the poor in spirit,”
then the painful circumstances that make us such
are our best friends, not our enemies.
The problem is that we aren’t naturally poor in spirit, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, or pure in heart. We aren’t born peacemakers, and we don’t typically rejoice when we are persecuted. Instead, left to ourselves, we are proud, selfish, and sinful. We fight to get our own way, and we flee from persecution like the Roadrunner hightailing it away from Wile E. Coyote. That’s where the Beatitudes come in: they depict who we can become when we allow God to work in us.
It is our nature to despise the circumstances that make us what the beatitudes say we should be. When we’re brought low by sickness, weakness, financial hardship, or relational strife, our first instinct is to ask God to fix the situation. But if Jesus says “blessed are the poor in spirit,” then the painful circumstances that make us such are our best friends, not our enemies. When an ugly situation brings us to our knees, let us rejoice, because we are one step closer to Christlikeness.
Who Is Really Blessed?
A man whose daughter had cerebral palsy told a story that stings with conviction. He was strapping his daughter’s wheelchair onto the school bus one morning when the girl next to her began to scream uncontrollably. This girl was blind and unable to speak or bend her joints; screaming was her only way to communicate her fear or pain. The father found himself irritated as he wrestled with his own daughter’s wheelchair buckle, thinking, Why should my daughter have to listen to this screaming the whole way to school? Why are this girl’s parents even sending her to school? I can’t wait to get off this bus and away from this wailing—I have so many important things to do today.
As he turned to exit the bus, his daughter’s voice stopped him in his tracks: “Don’t worry. I will be your friend,” he heard her say to the screaming girl. He turned around and saw his daughter struggle to reach out her arm and touch the girl. She instantly stopped screaming and was calm.
What a beautiful picture of the beatitudes in action. Even a man who had tasted the hardship that disability brings to a family could not come close to matching the compassion of his daughter, whose acquaintance with suffering had wrought in her exactly the character described in the beatitudes.
The average person would look on this young woman with pity, her wheelchair a reminder to those with working legs how “blessed” they are to be so able-bodied. Viewed through the lens of the beatitudes, though, she was the one who was actually blessed, because Christlike character had been forged in the fire of her physical weakness. She is the one who is truly great in God’s kingdom.
Eyes on the Prize
In the world’s eyes, the nine traits listed in the beatitudes are the opposite of glamorous, but nothing could be more beautiful than a person who embodies them and the glory that awaits her: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).