Last week, I published the first part of an article written by Elder Mike Ivey regarding the Beatitudes of Matthew chapter 5. Today, I want to share the rest of the article, which is an outstanding overview of these precious verses. I hope you are blessed by this writing as I was!
May the Lord bless you is my prayer.
Elder Chris McCool, Pastor
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BEATITUDES
By Elder Michael Ivey
(CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK). . . .
Blessed: Supremely Happy, sublime, joyous peace of mind received from God who extends the hem of his garment of eternal grace, in which we will forever be clothed when Jesus returns, to bestow temporal mercy and provision.
Blessed are:
1. The poor in spirit: In Christ’s kingdom his followers are happy to know that although by our own supply we are spiritually impoverished, our want of spiritual graces is abundantly covered by God in every circumstance according to our needs and his all-knowing and loving sovereign will.
2. They who mourn: When we sorrow, we are comforted by the extended grace of the Holy Comforter who covers and tempers our sadness. We sorrow because of our sins when we offend God, whom we love because he first loved us. But our sorrow is godly sorrow which will bring us to repentance which comforts us. We do not sorrow with despair as do they who are without hope. We sorrow in hope of eternal deliverance and rejoice to know all sources of sorrow will be forever left behind when Jesus comes again.
3. The meek: We are happy to be meek, to turn the other cheek, to do more than we are compelled by law to do. We are happy to not dispute with God and neither to engage in strife, be vengeful, or resentful and bitter toward others over worldly trials and tribulations. We are happy to have the quiet courage of faithful meekness so that we are not in anguish nor terrorized by threats and peril. We are not afraid because God, who is our loving Father, owns all creation. He owns the earth and as our present inheritance, has given us all we need to live here in joy and peace.
4. They who hunger, thirst for righteousness: Disciples are blessed when we inwardly crave to be fed with assurances of righteousness through Christ; which hungering and thirsting God bountifully supplies. He supplied us His own righteousness through the atonement of Christ Jesus on the cross for our eternal justification. He also supplies and applies treasrured assurance of eternal righteousness as justification by faith and good works. In His kingdom assurance of righteousness is our spiritual food and drink; which strengthens us spiritually to resist temptations and mortify the deeds of the flesh.
5. The merciful: Mercy is a hallmark of God’s kingdom, which makes us happy. We rejoice to have received God’s mercy in that He chose us in Christ, saved us by Christ’s atonement and quickened us by regeneration. By the teachings of his gospel he informs and allows us to participate in his church/Kingdom of heaven. By the mercy of his grace we have hope of eternal life when Jesus comes again. With such abundant mercy from God toward us, we are happy to have both duty and example and to use his grace to be merciful in all our dealings with all others.
6. The pure in heart: Disciples are blessed who set all affections on God making love and devotion to him our single focus; and by which our love and affection for others is directed and proceeds. We have great joy in that by gospel lessons, through inner stirrings as unctions from the Spirit of God, and by experiencing his manifold providential blessings we see God all-the-more in his glory, power, dominion and grace.
7. The peacemakers: We rejoice to have making peace as our vocation. We seek peace first to be reconciled to God by acknowledging that He alone is the source of righteousness. He is the moral authority who provides ethical example and instructions which apply to all our affairs. Through love for God and in submission to his moral authority and ethical instruction we are happy to be acknowledged as God’s dear children by seeking peace with all others.
8. Are ye: Responding with happiness and joy in the face of persecution and slander for serving God is evidence of our place and active participation in his church/kingdom of heaven. We rejoice and are happy because “all manner of evil” against us is evidence of the great blessings of eternal glory that await us when Jesus returns to raise us from the dead, changes our tortured bodies to be gloriously like him and carries us to heaven where we will forever be with the LORD.