“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
– Jesus, Matthew 5:3
Poverty of spirit does not mean financial poverty. It has nothing to do with how many stocks and shares I have or how fat my wallet is. Nor does it have anything to do with being poor in the Holy Spirit or having only a small amount of the Holy Spirit. Nor does it have anything to do with being poorly spirited or being poor in courage. Nor is it even being poor in spiritual awareness.
The expression itself comes from the Old Testament when sometimes God’s people are so oppressed they are called the poor of God, but eventually, whether they are oppressed or not, the name sticks, and then it takes on a whole deeper dimension of being poor in spirit. This poverty of spirit is not a sort of self-generated self-hatred. I think all Christians are repulsed by that sort of sham humility, which tries so hard to be humble but never succeeds.
I can think of one chap I studied with at seminary. He was much brighter than the rest of us, and he had far more degrees than the rest of us. He had already been through I don’t how many programs, and he kept telling us that when he got the next one he’d just stick it in the bottom drawer and forget about it. He told us so many times he sometimes wished he’d stick himself in the bottom drawer.
Poverty of spirit isn’t anything like that at all. Rather, genuine poverty of spirit is the conscious acknowledgement of un-worth before God. It is the deepest form of repentance. Isaiah says, “Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit.’ ” Again, “To this man will I look: him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.” (Is. 57:15)
The psalmist in Psalm 51 says, “The sacrifices of the Lord are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise.” It is to depend not a whit on my so-called talents and skills when I stand before God. There are dangers to being in Cambridge. There are dangers to being in CICCU in Cambridge. I suspect there is no pride more deadly than that which finds its roots in great learning and great show of piety.
This beatitude of the Lord is a full, honest, factual, conscious, and conscientious recognition of my personal un-worth before God. Poverty of spirit, therefore, may end in a triumphant Gideon vanquishing enemy hosts, but it begins with a Gideon who first affirms that he is incapable of the task, and he insists that if the Lord doesn’t go with him, he’d much rather stay home and thresh his grain. That’s poverty of spirit. It is exemplified by the publican in the temple. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Therefore, we can see why the reward is the kingdom of God. It is theirs because they belong to it. These who are poor in spirit have submitted to the kingdom’s obligations, namely the total reign of God, and therefore, they enjoy its privileges. It is, in fact, deep repentance. God is far more interested in what we are than in what we do, and therefore, the very first beatitude strikes at the very essence of the human being. It states right at the beginning that person’s reward is the kingdom of heaven.
Excerpt from: The Kingdom of Heaven: It’s Norms and Witness – D.A. Carson
Former Blackout Artist 