The Beatitudes

The “beatitudes” are a list of characteristics that Jesus teaches we should have as followers of him. He teaches this lesson during the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. The beatitudes are

1. Humility (3)
2. Mourning (4)
3. Meekness (5)
4. Justice (6)
5. Kindness (7)
6. Purity (8)
7. Peace (9)
8. Faithfulness (10)

These are the traits Jesus is looking for in his followers. He explains that God rewards those who live by these traits in verse 12:

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

So living by these traits may not be easy, but we should be confident that God will reward us. The reward may not be an earthly reward, but God will show us this reward in eternal life with him.

As with anything that God has, this world attempts to have something else. The world has a counterfeit to everything good God has. So the counterfeit beatitudes would be the meatitudes.

1. Prideful
2. Happiness at all cost
3. Power
4. Personal need above others
5. Strength without feeling
6. Deception
7. chaos
8. Perfidious – unfaithful

God wants us to develop the attitude of a follower, he wants us to think of others as opposed to ourselves. Let’s discuss each beatitude and the corresponding meatitude.

Humility vs Pride

Humility is a quality of mind. The humble person will hold a low esteem and opinion of their own good traits. To see this in God’s light, we realize we fully depend God for everything and most importantly our salvation. To be a humble servant of God, we must realize that we depend on Him and recognize that we are sinners; otherwise we think we can do something on our own will to obtain God’s grace. This is pride. Proverbs is full of scripture warning about pride:

Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10

This verse tells us that pride leads to arguments and quarrels. Take a moment to examine your own life and ask how many times have fights and contentions arose because of my own prideful ambitions.

When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 11:2

Here Solomon is contrasting the prideful and humble. The prideful person finds themselves in situations of disgrace (shame). We start thinking we can do it all on our own and soon realize that we have gotten ourselves in a tough spot and need someone to bail us out. We do this to God as well when we try to do His work without His help. Or when we give Him parts of our lives, but keep other parts to ourselves. How many times do you tell God, “I can handle this…”. (see also Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 18:12, Proverbs 29:23).

It’s clear through God’s word that a spirit of pride is course for destruction. We call ourselves Christians and as Christians we should be imitators of Christ. Jesus was extremely humble. A king comes to earth to die for his servants. A king comes to earth and is born in a manger. A king who could call 10,000 angels to take him off the cross made the ultimate sacrifice for the ones he loves!