The General Characteristics and Disposition of a Christian
Overview of Matthew 5:3-12
THE APPLICATION IS TO ALL CHRISTIANS
What Jesus says in this part of the Sermon on the Mount concerns all Christians and is not a matter of these characteristics as being displayed by only some Christians and not by others. So, Jesus is not saying that some are “peacemakers,” whereas others are “the meek.” Indeed, all these characteristics and dispositions are meant to be evident in the lives of all Christians because all the characteristics are inseparably bound together. Here we find that Jesus’ emphasis is on what we are, rather than on what we do—being and attitude rather than our actions so that one must be Christian before one can act Christian. However, because of human imperfection at the present time there will be different degrees of manifesting these characteristics, but all should be manifest now, but will be fully manifest in God’s Kingdom.
THE SEQUENCE
This section of the sermon contains what is known as the beatitudes and there is a very definite order to them—a spiritual logical sequence. In fact, there may be an actual correspondence of characteristics with #5, 6 and 7 corresponding to #1, 2, and 3 and with #4 of ‘hungering and thirsting after what is right and just’ acting as a bridge. This would mean that:- The realization of one’s spiritual poverty results in one becoming merciful toward others.
- One’s mourning over one’s sinful condition results in one becoming pure in heart i.e., with a clean mind.
- One’s meekness results in one becoming a peacemaker.
So, the first three characteristics show one’s need. Number four speaks of one’s becoming satisfied and number 5 through 7 give the results from such satisfaction.
Furthermore, none of these are natural biological characteristics. For example, so-called natural meekness in someone is not the same as the meekness and other qualities Jesus speaks of here which are characteristics and dispositions as a result of one’s regeneration by God’s holy spirit and so are spiritual and ‘Christ-like.’ When this is the case then those of the world are more likely to be attracted to Christianity. Certainly, the Christian and the man of the world belong to two different realms with the Christian belonging to “the Kingdom of heaven” in contrast to the kingdoms of the world which will, in the future, “become the Kingdom of our LORD and of His Messiah, and He will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
THE TEXT
3“Blessed are those realizing their spiritual poverty, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.
4Blessed are the grieving, because they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the humble-minded, because they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after what is right and just, because they will be completely satisfied.
7Blessed are the merciful, because they will receive mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called God’s children.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of doing what is right, because they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and keep telling all kinds of malicious lies about you on account of me! 12Continue celebrating and being thrilled: your reward is great in heaven. Indeed, they did the same when they persecuted the prophets who lived before you.”
COMMENTS
5:3 “Blessed are those realizing their spiritual poverty.” This shows that one arrives at the Gospel message with nothing and that one cannot do all that is in these beatitudes by oneself. This further shows that these characteristics are not new law and there will be failure in this for the Christian who treats it as such and tries to be self-reliant and self-confident. Everything that happens in terms of these godly characteristics is by means of God’s spirit. So, here is the difference between the natural man and the Christian. Here one is face-to-face with our heavenly Father in complete poverty of spirit as an absence of self-assurance and any self-reliance so that one views themselves as nothing in the presence of God. So here, our societal or financial status, family background, intelligence or education level or any other special abilities mean nothing in His presence, but we are to be in complete submission to Him.
If the above is the case with a person, then the blessing for them will be that “the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them” both presently as they become kingdom people and in association with those who are of like spirit as well as in the future when the Kingdom comes in substance with the return of Jesus.
As pointed out in the note in the Chapter 1 overview the Greek word makarios means having God’s approval and therefore “blessed,” rather than merely being happy or happy in a worldly way. However, this term does also include happiness, but it is godly happiness and Christian joy in realizing one’s spiritual poverty as well as all the other characteristics given by Jesus in this sermon.
5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn (grieve).” This logically follows on from one’s being in spiritual poverty and shows the Christian as in spiritual mourning especially over their own specific sins and so requiring some degree of self-examination. One suggestion for this is that, at the end of each day, one should take stock of one’s behaviour toward others and what one has said to them during the day and then ask: what is it in my character that leads me to behave in that bad way? And so, this prayerful “mourning” and seeking God’s spirit further leads to a change in speech and behaviour over time. As the Apostle Paul said of himself:
Certainly, Messiah Jesus is one’s advocate in all of this (1 John 2:1, 2) and so because one repents and then knows that one is forgiven, he/she is comforted and regains happiness as a blessed person.
Furthermore, as with Lot in ancient times (2 Pet. 2:7) the Christian also mourns over the terrible sins of others in all of society and the world, especially in seeing the steady moral degradation taking place and the vicious actions of some toward others. All this requires the Christian to be praying for a change of heart in those who cause such sinful ways and actions. Nevertheless, the Christian has further comfort from having “the blessed hope” (Titus 2;13) because God’s wonderful plan will remove all such sinful things.
5:5 “Blessed are the meek (the humble-minded).” This characteristic naturally flows from one’s mourning over sin and one’s subsequent repentance and shows the Christian as a new man or woman in character and disposition who is entirely different to those in the world. This characteristic is not one that comes naturally to a person and is, in fact, something that the ‘natural’ man cannot understand. It is the very opposite of what he believes is the way for a person to be because he thinks in terms of gaining power, being self-assured, standing on his rights in being possessive, and being aggressive to get what he wants. However, unknown to the natural man “meekness” for the Christian is a quality of inward strength in the individual to stand for what is right irrespective of whether he/she is part of an institution or organization, because the Christian is not trusting in human power. Certainly, meekness is not easygoingness or niceness in and of themselves, but rather the truly meek person is a person who is teachable but also a great defender of what is true although said under self-control (Gal. 5:23). However, more so than with the first two beatitudes of self-examination, this one allows others to focus the searchlight upon the Christian. Wonderfully, there are a vast number of figures in the Scriptures who demonstrated meekness even though none were naturally so. These were: Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Stephen, and Paul. However, the ultimate example was the Lord Jesus the Messiah himself. All these ones should be studied as examples of meekness so that that Christian may know what this disposition looks like in practice. So, the truly meek person does not assert himself, does not make forceful claims of all his rights or any status/positions or privileges or possessions and is one who follows Paul’s counsel not to:
Furthermore, such a meek person will never get overly defensive, or be overly sensitive about himself or herself or full of self-pity. For them there is no spirit of retaliation just as Jesus never reviled those who reviled him and indeed was the most approachable of all people.
Now concerning the blessing for such ones Jesus said that they, “will inherit the land (earth)” and in one sense they already have inherited the earth just as Paul speaks of Christians, “as having nothing and yet possessing everything!” (2 Cor. 6:10), but added to that will be their literal possession of the earth so that Christians, “will govern the world in justice? (1 Cor. 6:2).
5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after what is right and just.” This next stage shows the now developing desire of the Christian to become the kind of person who is free from the power of sin and rebellion so that he/she is becoming truly sanctified and much more right with God i.e., righteous. In fact, it goes further so that there is a desire to be free from the very desire for sin—leading to a desire to be just like the Lord Jesus himself in his character and disposition as one who was without sin. Again, this hungering and thirsting is not done by ourselves, but only by means of the sheer power of holy spirit. Indeed, such hunger and thirst cause a certain amount of pain and restlessness until the Christian is completely satisfied in being given what they desire as the blessing for them. This becomes evident when they are manifesting the fruit of the spirit in their life (Gal. 5:22-26). At this point the heavenly Father no longer sees in them any sin, but sees the Christian as forgiven and as one who is set apart from sin i.e., holy as He says, “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done” (Jer. 31:34).
Nevertheless, to maintain our spiritual appetite, one’s hungering and thirsting must be a continuing process and one’s desire is well summed up in Psalm 63:1 as, “O God, you are my God; I will seek you diligently. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you as in a dry and weary land without water.” This means that one should be spending a very great amount of time in God’s presence by reading and studying His scriptures and in prayer. Because of having such, “hunger and thirst after what is right and just” this will result in the remainder of the characteristics so that a Christian will become merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers.
The finality of this process will be at the return of Messiah Jesus when all who have hungered and thirsted, “after what is right and just” will be transformed so that they are completely without any flaws in their glorified bodies.
5:7 “Blessed are the merciful.” In his progression of thought through his sermon Jesus now begins to focus more specifically on the Christian’s disposition as resulting from the characteristics described earlier. Certainly, each feature can only be properly understood when the sermon is viewed in its full context. So, what is a Christian like? The answer is, along with other dispositions: merciful, but this does not necessarily mean to be ‘easy-going.’ It means to feel compassion toward someone but with a sympathetic and empathetic desire to relieve their suffering. It often comes into effect when there is a particular relationship with someone especially if a wrong has been committed against one personally. So, one must ask oneself: Is my spirit that of getting even with them? Or do I have a forgiving and reconciling spirit?
The greatest example of the showing of mercy concerns God as He sees mankind’s pitiable state after Adam’s sin and then providing the solution by sending His beloved Son as Messiah to bring about atonement and therefore reconciliation between God and mankind. Jesus even illustrated such mercifulness by God in his parable of the two debtors who were released from their debts as described in Luke 7:41-50. Similarly, regarding those who executed him, Jesus demonstrated the wonderful example of mercy in saying, “Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24). This shows that even when the Christian is being persecuted, he or she must be merciful to the persecutors even praying that God will be merciful to them. In this regard the Christian who has this spirit of mercifulness, “will be shown mercy” by God Himself.
5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart.” The progression in the sermon continues with a pure heart developing as a further result of one’s, “realizing their spiritual poverty” and their “hunger and thirst after what is right and just.” Indeed, the heart refers to the core of a person—the centre of their being—but not merely the so-called seat of affections or emotions. Certainly, it includes these as well as the mind and the will. So, although an intellectual understanding of the Scriptures is essential, in this regard it must not be put to the fore and one must ask oneself: what is the condition of my heart—my core being or personality. Jesus showed what the problems can be in saying:
The reason for this is as Jeremiah stated that, “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9 NIV). However, those who become pure in heart—who are never hypocritical, but have an undivided love of God and are cleansed in the sense of having become holy i.e., set apart for God—these “see God” now with the ‘eye of faith’ in the sense of truly knowing Him as did Moses (Heb. 11:27). However, they may also literally see Him in the future Kingdom because of their glorification.
This cleansing of us is primarily a work of God through His holy spirit in response to one’s prayer of, “create in me a pure heart” (Ps. 51:10) and then we must, “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (Jas. 4:8) and be working to, “put to death your worldly inclinations” (Col. 3:5).
5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We can see how this disposition corresponds to that of “meekness” as shown in the overview of Matthew 5:3-10 and is brought about because one has realized, “their spiritual poverty” and has a “hunger and thirst after what is right and just.” This further shows the Christian as one who attempts to bring about reconciliation so that all may have peace—shalom in Hebrew (Gk eirene). Shalom is said when someone is enquiring after another person’s entire well-being—their health, spiritual state, and prosperity, but also helping in those areas of life. It is said in anticipation of an absence of strife and a resolution of any conflict in the person’s life. Such ‘peace’ must be pursued and on occasion there may be quite a high price to be paid to obtain it. It will certainly involve some degree of compromise—possibly even of one’s personal dignity. This means that the Christian must be a “peacemaker” through attempts to reconcile with a person where the relationship has been broken or to help two others to reconcile from their broken relationship—to help them to make matters right between themselves.
However, peacemakers are not simply appeasers and easy-going persons who want to ‘let sleeping dogs lie,’ or try to maintain the ‘status quo,’ but rather they are those who actively work toward the resolution of problems in attempting to produce peace to the glory of God. This is done by maintaining neutrality in helping others with their issues. But if it involves one personally then the peacemaker will not be over-sensitive or on the defensive or again standing on his or her rights, but even willing to suffer an injustice so that peace may be maintained.
The world’s problems of war and international tensions remain because it is the heart of man that is not pure—he ignores Jesus’ teaching given in this sermon. Instead, mankind generally operates based on self-interest and self-centeredness often resulting in greed and lust—it is his heart that is the problem in stopping him from being a true peacemaker (Matt. 15:18,19). So, until Jesus’ teachings to gain a pure heart are applied by everyone these problems will continue.
In practical terms a peacemaker is one who controls his or her tongue (Jas. 3:1-12) and does not say or even repeat harmful things about other people. Indeed, not everything in one’s mind needs to be expressed, but one does need to be approachable. In all this Christians “will be called God’s children.”
5:10 “Blessed are those who are harassed for the sake of doing what God approves of.” Some Christians bring harassment or persecution upon themselves by being fanatical or overzealous even making a nuisance of themselves. This approach to Christianity is not what is commended in the Scriptures, but is the mindset of the natural man. Rather, the Christian must show wisdom in being “cautious as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). So, this blessing noted by Jesus comes when the Christian is, “doing what God approves of” i.e., “for righteousness’ sake” and which simply means being like Jesus. He explained that:
Certainly, it is the gentle and kind spirit of the Christian that gets them persecuted. Indeed, Jesus himself is described as one who was completely gentle with others. Of him it is said, “He will not break a damaged reed and he will not snuff out a smouldering wick” (Matt. 12:20) and yet he was persecuted for having this disposition as well as for what he stood for. The Christian should be the same in imitation of Messiah Jesus and therefore will suffer for it, and it will be just as the Apostle Paul said: “anyone who wants to live a godly life by following Messiah Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). These ones “belong to the Kingdom of Heaven” they are citizens of that Kingdom of God rather than of the world.
Indeed, it was the religious leaders in Jesus’ day that persecuted him and his followers. And amazingly some of the worst persecution of Christians since then has also been by church authorities and formal nominal Christians largely because “the righteous” were different and this often showed up the nominal Christian as not being very much of a Christian. Indeed, the true Christian has experienced regeneration—a new birth to be Christlike and so shine a light into the world, but the world prefers the darkness and hates the light and therefore persecutes those who reflect that light.
5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and keep telling all kinds of terrible lies about you on account of me!” This is really an amplification of the previous beatitude because there is a clear-cut distinction between the Christian and the natural man. Jesus said that he “didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34) i.e., division over his message and his character and disposition. Indeed, his followers were to be the same in doing all that they do “on account of” him because they have “been bought with a high price” (1 Cor. 7:23). The Apostle Paul further stated that Christians, “have been given the privilege on Messiah’s behalf, not only to pledge allegiance to him, but also to suffer for his sake.” (Phil 1:29). In fact, such persecution is evidence that one is really a true Christian and imitator of Messiah Jesus, that one has been called to be a son/daughter of God, and that one will receive the rewards promised. So, the Christian’s reaction to persecution will be the same as their master’s reaction and which means that when they are being persecuted, they will not retaliate, will not feel resentment, and will never get depressed over such persecution along with never asking ‘why am I being treated this way?’ Rather they will rejoice as shown in verse 12.
5:12 “Continue celebrating and being thrilled: your reward is great in heaven. Indeed, they did the same when they persecuted the prophets who lived before you.” This shows the Christian as one who is imitating the Master who, “in view of the joy that was laid out in front of him…endured the cross, ignoring its shame” (Heb. 12:2). However, there is a mindset among some Christians that none of what is done as a Christian should be done with rewards in mind. This, in fact, is an unscriptural way of thinking as shown here in verse 12 as well as Hebrews 12:2 and many other texts such as, “if a person’s work survives, they will receive a reward” (1 Cor. 3:14). Certainly, one’s salvation with the granting of immortality in the glorified body like that of Messiah’s glorified body is a reward, but even more is offered in the future Kingdom as rewards. All such rewards are stored up with God and will be given when Christ returns to earth (2 Tim. 4:1, 8; 1 Cor. 15:22-23). So, these are things that the Christian should focus on daily just as Jesus did.
The Challenge to Be the Salt of the Earth
Matthew 5:13
THE TEXT
“You are the salt of the earth! But if salt becomes tasteless, how can its saltiness get restored? It’s no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by people.”
(Also Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34-35).
COMMENTS
5:13 The two primary uses of salt are for flavouring and for preserving. However, if the salt crystals attract moisture they will dissolve and become useless i.e., it loses its saltiness. If this is the case it is only good for one thing as Jesus said, namely, to be, “thrown out and trampled by people.” However, Christians are to be “the salt of the earth” and therefore to be preserving of what is good and in particular of what is spiritually good. Therefore, this means that they should promote God’s moral standards and be a strong influence for society in this regard. Furthermore, it implies that the world is like meat that has become rotten with its tendency to evil. This saying means that the Christian must be very different from the world as unique and remain so in not losing their “saltiness” and with their primary task being to evangelize the world to help individuals to make positive changes in their lives with a godly outlook away from the world’s rottenness.
The Challenge to Give Light
Matthew 5:14-16
THE TEXT
“You are the light of the world! A town built on top of a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a measuring-bucket. Instead, they put it on a lampstand so it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way you should let your light shine in the sight of people, so they can see the good things you do. Then they’ll glorify your Father in the heavens.” (Also Mark 4:21-25 and Luke 8:16-18).
COMMENTS
5:14a “You are the light of the world.” Jesus teaches that only he and his followers are “the light of the world” because he had given them the true light which, of course, is a symbol for “truth” as opposed to error i.e., darkness. Also, they are “children of light” (Eph. 5:8) in contrast to those in the world who are children of darkness and who according to Jesus:
5:14b “A town built on top of a hill.” This may well refer to Jerusalem, because it was the centre of Israel and Israel was traditionally considered to be, “the light of the world.” However, Jesus himself replaces Jerusalem in this role because he is now the primary “light of the world” (John 9:5).
5:15 “They put it on a lampstand.” The smaller oil lamps would give their best light in a home if they were raised and set on stands and Jesus humorously shows how foolish it would be to cover it over.
5:16 “Let your light shine.” Christians must let this light shine by their works of warning the world about the darkness they are in. The moment the Christian lets his light stop shining it becomes of no value and indeed, they become like the salt that loses its saltiness. In fact, no true Christian would even want to hide his light. Of course, the way to keep one’s light shining is in our maintenance of our relationship with Our heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus by means of prayer and meditation on the holy Scriptures with constant reminders of the may teachings found in them. In all this one would give glory to God Himself.
How Different Should Christians Be?
It has been a fundamental mistake for Christians to think that the more like the world they are the more people will be attracted to Christianity. This outlook has always failed. It has been the exact opposite even though people of the world may initially hate the Christian message, they may come to see that this is the better way. It is as the Apostle peter wrote:Certainly, it is the observing by non-Christians of the Christian’s character, disposition, good deeds, and honourable conduct that will have the greatest impact on them.
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