God *blesses you when you are poor in *spirit

The Life of Jesus Christ - Chapter 4 - Jesus, the great teacher - Part 3

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An online Bible Study course by Barrie Wetherill about the life of Jesus. This book is in EasyEnglish Level B. Use the links below for other online Bible Study books and commentaries that will help you. Or go to the Word List, which explains words with a *star.

Easy English Bible homepage | Matthew (commentary) | Mark (commentary) | Luke (commentary) | John (commentary)

Matthew 5:3

This is a very important verse.

Think about God

To understand the *sermon, we must think about God. We must think about what God is really like. God is perfect and completely good. He does what is always right and fair. He is perfect. There is nothing that is not perfect about God. He is not like a shadow, that changes (James 1:17). His nature is love: all love.

What happens to people who understand this? Men like the *prophet Isaiah, the *prophet Ezekiel, or the *disciple John had *visions of God. Then they understood how great and how perfect God is. At the same time they understood themselves. They knew that they did not deserve God’s love. They knew that their lives were full of wrong things. When Peter realised who Jesus is, Peter fell down. He said, ‘Leave me, because I am a wicked man’. The *sermon starts with a verse that says this. ‘You are happy if you know this: you are poor in *spirit’ (Matthew 5:3).

How to describe a Christian

If you want to describe a Christian, begin like this. The Christian must know that he is poor in *spirit. The *kingdom of God belongs to people who know this. In fact, the *kingdom of God belongs ONLY to people who know this. They know that they are not good. God *blesses those who know this. They know that they need God. They know that they are not right without God. That is why God *blesses them. He does not *bless people who do not want him. There is nobody in the *kingdom of God who is not poor in *spirit.

We need God

Many people do not care about their spirits. Instead, they believe in themselves. They are confident because they trust in themselves. They think that you can make society good, by good government. But you cannot do this. We all have wrong things in our hearts and in our lives. We have to realise this first. Then we can realise that we need God.