Luke 6:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Who is Christ addressing when he says these words? We have been told that there is more than one party present. There are the twelve apostles, there are the larger number of disciples, and then there are others who have come to hear him and to be healed. He looks up and addresses his disciples and the words are for them. Does that mean to say that he is only addressing the disciples? No. As you read on through the passage, you find that a great deal of what he is saying here is addressed to the wider crowd. Then why does he lift up his eyes and look at his disciples and address them? Because he is doing two things at once. He is giving words of comfort and exhortation to those disciples which applies specifically to them, but at the same time he is teaching the great mass of outsiders some vital principles about the way of salvation. He is saying in effect, ‘People who are my disciples will be blessed because this is true of them.’ He might as well be saying, ‘Do you see these people? I'll tell you something about them. These are the characteristics of my disciples …’ We need to see that this is not only a word to his disciples, but it is an evangelistic address, and calculated to teach something to the great mass of outsiders. ‘Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.’ The word of God is not teaching that if a man is poor, he is going to have it all made up to him in the afterlife; whereas if a man is rich, he is going to have it all taken away from him in the afterlife. That is nowhere taught in the word of God. It is true that the way in which it is expressed in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is probably a little plainer: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’, but it is plain enough here when you take the whole chapter in context, and you look at the woes which are later pronounced. The word traditionally translated into English as ‘blessed’ has the meaning of possessing an inward contentment, an inward joy that rises above life's circumstances. This is one of the wonders of being a Christian. We can be in the most difficult situation and yet be given the peace of God which passes all understanding. To be blessed in the truest sense of this word means that you are divinely favoured of God. Now those here in this sermon would have understood this statement of Jesus. Happiness is an emotion. Happiness depends on circumstances, but blessedness is an endowment from God. It's a state and condition ordained by God. It is the state of those who have spiritual life and communion with God.‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ The poverty our Lord is speaking of is not material poverty. A person can be poor and yet remain hating God. They can remain proud and arrogant and still full of themselves. The poverty the Lord Jesus described here is in a man's spirit, not in his pocket. Neither is this poverty spoken of here simply an outward, false show of humility. Neither does it mean an outward show of poverty, pretending that you are poor when actually God has blessed you abundantly. To be poor in spirit means that you recognize your utter unworthiness before God. It means to acknowledge truly and sincerely from your heart that you are a sinner and that you, in and of yourselves, are spiritually bankrupt. The poor in spirit know they can have no hope except in the sovereign mercy of God. The way to become poor in spirit is to look to God, as he is revealed to us in the Scriptures. It means that God has brought you by his grace to give up all your self-reliance, all your self-confidence, all your self-importance, all your self-righteousness, so that you have a healthy distrust of self which brings you to a healthy trust in God's word and in his wisdom.