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What the Bible says about Spiritual Dependence
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Matthew 5:3

What does "poor in spirit" mean? The Greek phrase is ptochoi to pneumati. The beginning, ptochoi, suggests a person so poor that he has no income from his own labors but must rely on charity to survive. In essence, the ptochoi Jesus refers to has nothing except the clothes on his back, so he is totally dependent on others for his continued existence. We would call such a person completely and utterly destitute.

The addition of the phrase, tō pneumati, specifies that the realm or the area in which this absolute destitution exists is not physical but spiritual. The main part of God's work is in the realm of the spirit, pneuma.

This distinction Jesus makes removes the physical and material entirely from the discussion. He is not talking about a person who is on the street, homeless, or a person who is in any way physically poor. A fully employed, comfortably wealthy individual, one who has enough money to have a residence, food on the table, clothes, a car, and a few other extra things, or even a billionaire who has whatever he wants, could be "poor in spirit." Such an individual could be totally devoid of spiritual resources and thus completely dependent on God for spiritual sustenance. Jesus is not talking about wealth or the lack thereof in the physical sense at all. His phrasing confines it to a spiritual sense.

A simple but explanatory translation or paraphrase of what Jesus says here might be, "Blessed are those who realize their absolute need for God."

The parallel in Luke 6:20 reads, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke does not mention "in spirit." Luke uses ptochoi without the addition of to pneumati, so it is just, "Blessed are you poor." Even so, Luke's beatitude is very much the same as Matthew's beatitude; they are not contradictory because Jesus always stresses the spiritual over the physical.

It is plain from an understanding of Scripture that the poor possess no innate or inherent blessing. God does not glorify physical poverty. In fact, the whole Bible urges us to work and strive to be materially self-sufficient so that we have excess to give others (see Ephesians 4:28). Beyond that, Jesus says that He offers us the abundant life (John 10:10). He is speaking predominantly about spiritual things, but with His blessings, He gives us plenty of physical things to enjoy.

Poverty is "blessed" only when the poor person realizes his need and dependence on God. That kind of poverty, spiritual poverty, God does respect. Poverty of the Spirit exists when we realize we need Him for everything. We have nothing to give Him except our obedience.

Jesus pronounces a blessing on those who know they lack any good spiritual resources. They acknowledge what Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." The spiritual resources we possess are, by contrast, on the other side of the ledger—the sinful kind. Of ourselves, we have nothing to add to the good side. All the good spiritual things come from God.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Poor in Spirit

John 9:25-29

The healed man readily acknowledges his ignorance but then adds, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). Despite not knowing of Jesus, he is certain that He had changed him. In this, he becomes a type of genuine Christians. They do not know everything, but what they know they truly know because they have met and accepted Jesus personally as Lord and Savior.

Unlike the others, the man humbly begins with his limitations in knowledge. Both the parents and Pharisees say “we know” first and only after they declare what they do not know (see verses 20-21, 24-29), revealing their cowardice or ignorance. The man first admits his ignorance but then affirms what he knows as the result of God's revelation.

In his humble state, he easily recognizes the lack of knowledge in others, in this case, the greater ignorance of the “educated” leaders of the people. Having eliminated false self-confidence as well as any unjustified confidence in the Pharisees, all that remains is what he truly knows: He could now see. Thus, he takes his stand on the certainties.

As Christians, beginning in ignorance and sin, we confess both our spiritual dependence and our failings. We realize that, unless God chooses to reveal Himself—which He does in His Word and in Christ—we can know nothing. No one can know God by means of human reasoning or by any other human instrument (Job 11:7; I Corinthians 2:14). Spiritual knowledge is not revealed even through religious tradition, but it comes through the intervention of God in history, in His written Word, and the opening of the mind by the Holy Spirit—and only to those whom God calls.

Jesus says to the once-blind man, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Having been blind, do we now entrust our spiritual well-being to Jesus Christ?

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Man Born Blind (Part Three)


 




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