Poor in spirit - is that good thing?
"Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit because they are poor in spirit." He did not think, "What a fine thing it is to be destitute of every spiritual attainment or quality. It makes people worthy of the kingdom." And we steal away the much more profound meaning of his teaching about the availablity of the kingdom by replacing the state of spiritual impovershiment - in no way good in itself - with some supposedly praiseworthy state of mind or attitude that "qualifies" us for the kingdom.
In so doing we merely substitute another banal legalism for the ecstatic pronouncment of the gospel. Those poor in spirit are called "blessed" by Jesus, not because they are in a meritorious condition, but because, precisely in spite of and in the midst of their ever so depolorable condition, the rule of the heavens has moved redemptively upon them and through them by the grace of Christ"
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 1997, Harper Collins, p102
Created almost 4 years ago
