Beautiful Blessings: A Closer Look at the Beatitudes

Opening Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes (found in Matthew 5:2-12) comprise probably one of the more well-known passages of Scripture in the culture at large today. The refrains, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” “Blessed are the merciful,” and “Blessed are the peacemakers” are phrases that I would guess many people would recognize, even if they didn’t know where the phrases came from.

For Christians who have grown up in church, the Beatitudes are one of those passages that it’s easy to breeze right by, having heard them scores and scores of times. For me, they’ve always been verses that were comforting—after all, who wouldn’t want to read about blessings?—but ones that were also a little confusing.

The way I had read them (and often had heard them spoken about), made it seem like the blessings to be had were general, unspecified bits of goodness that were bestowed upon people who fit the description in the rest of the phrase—mourners who were comforted, meek who would inherit the earth, pure in heart who would see God, etc. The second Beatitude in particular, left me with questions: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (v. 4). Why would being comforted in mourning be something God would bless you for? I thought.

Ah, but then one day I had a lightbulb moment reading the verses I had read countless times before, and I realized that I had been misreading them all along. More specifically, I had been misreading one word all along, and that word made all the difference. . . .

“For” is a tricky little word in the English language. It can be both a preposition (as in, “I made this for you!”), or it can be a conjunction (as in, “She was tired, for she had not slept well the night before.”)  The latter is how we see it in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (v. 3). But even in its role as a conjunction, “for” can have various implications.

To say, “She was tired, for she had not slept well the night before,” is to say that the reason she was tired is that she hadn’t slept well. But to say, “The film was acclaimed, for it won an academy award,” is to say that the way in which the film was praised was through its being awarded an Oscar.

Prior to my lightbulb moment, I had been reading the Beatitudes according to the first implication. That is, I took “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” to mean that the reason the merciful will be blessed is that they will receive mercy. No wonder I was confused!

As I came to realize my error, I saw that the second part of each sentence is not telling the reason why a person will be blessed; it is explaining the manner in which the person is blessed!

So the poor in spirit are blessed in that the kingdom of heaven is theirs (v. 3).

Those who mourn are blessed with comfort (v.4).

Those who are meek are blessed with the earth as their inheritance (v.5).

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed with satisfaction (v.6).

The merciful are blessed through being shown mercy (v.7).

The pure in heart are blessed by seeing God (v.8).

The peacemakers are blessed in that they are adopted by God (v.9).

Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed with the kingdom of heaven (v.10).

See how a proper understanding of that one little word completely changes the meaning and significance of the passage?

Furthermore, with this understanding nailed down, we can begin to discover other truths about these blessings. First of all, they are passive. In other words, they are gifts, not something that the person receiving the gift does for himself. (Incidentally, this is another huge clue that the “for” refers to the “manner in which” instead of the “reason why.”) Comfort, satisfaction, and mercy are things that do not come from within us ourselves. Likewise, adoption and the corresponding inheritance of the earth, the kingdom of heaven and face-time with God are things that are bestowed upon us. They are gifts of grace.

Secondly, the blessings are distinctly spiritual. None of them include tangible things. So if you’re looking for something to support the prosperity gospel mindset that if you love God and do what’s right, He’ll make you—to borrow a phrase from Benjamin Franklin—“healthy, wealthy, and wise,” there’s nothing to help you here. And really, this should be no surprise, given what God tells us elsewhere in His Word. For instance, through the apostle Paul, He has told us that He “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3, ESV, emphasis added).

Yes, every good thing we have is from God (see James 1:17), including physical comforts, but the blessings that are far more consequential and enduring are those of a spiritual nature such as conviction, forgiveness, love, mercy, peace, satisfaction, joy, and comfort, not to mention the ability to enter into the presence of God and to do so without shame.

There’s so much more that could be written about the Beatitudes—my dad once spent about ten weeks teaching through them on Sunday mornings!—like how they are structured intentionally, beginning and ending with the kingdom of heaven; how they are related to persecution; how they illustrate the progression of sanctification (i.e. growth in holiness) in the life of a Christian, and so much more.

But for now, I’ll just leave you to ponder these blessings that are yours in Christ Jesus, for they are beautiful blessings, indeed.