NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER FIVE

Part I (con’t)

NOTE: Luke includes a Beatitude not found here in Matthew.¹ It reads, “Great blessings belong to you who are crying now. You will be happy and laughing.”² This expresses the concerns of person who grieves and weeps because of issues such as hunger, financial loss, or being poor and how they will be given a reason to be happy and laugh when their needs are met. It may be compared to what David often felt.³ It is almost a repeat of what we find in Jeremiah: “I will change their sadness into happiness. I will comfort my people, making them happy instead of sad.”⁴ It is not the laugh that Sarah had,⁵ but like the rejoicing in the Song of Ascents,⁶ and the Prophets.⁷ One Jewish translator comments on Sarah’s statement: “God has given me good reason to laugh; now everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.”⁸ He says that the Hebrew used here allows for this to also be rendered: “God has made me laugh, but whoever hears me laughing will laugh at me.”⁹ In other words, everyone who hears about Sarah having a child in old age may result in some laughing for joy with her, and some laughing with disdain at her.

Verse 5: “Great blessings belong to those who are humble. They will be given the land as God has promised.”

This same thought is expressed in the Psalms this way: “But the meek will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”¹⁰ The key word here is “meek” (KJV). The New American Standard Bible renders it “gentle.” Some translate it as “humble” such as the Living Bible. But “meek” can be very misleading as English as spoken today. The Greek word translated by the KJV means: “mildness of disposition and gentleness of spirit.” I like the way James Strong defines it in his lexicon: “Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend against injustice. Thus, meekness toward evil people means knowing God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He is using them to purify His elect, and that He will deliver His elect in His time.¹¹ Gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God’s goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will¹².”¹³

Jesus gives a personal illustration of this: “Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit.”¹⁴ Moses was considered such a person.¹⁵ In the Psalms we see this spirit lauded,¹⁶ as well as in the prophets.¹⁷ In Zechariah 9:9, we find a line that was quoted by Matthew in 21:5 with reference to Jesus when He rode toward Jerusalem on the back of the donkey.

All though the Jews were admittedly a proud and sometimes arrogant people, they also had great respect for this virtue of being mild mannered. According John Gill, in one Jewish writing it is said: “Wisdom, fear, and meekness are of high esteem; but, meekness is greater than them all.”¹⁸ And we also read: “Our Rabbis taught: A man should always be gentle like Hillel, and not impatient like Shammai.”¹⁹ Taking this into consideration, we might say that the moral ethic of patient tolerance is raised here by Jesus to the level of it being a Christian virtue of grace and a fruit of the Spirit. As a result, when true believers practice and implement this virtue, they will end up inheriting and managing their portion of the land as God originally planned it to be.

One facet of this teaching that has caused some difference in interpretation, involves the word “earth” (KJV), being given to believers as part of God’s promise. In the Old Testament, this referred to the Promised Land which was designated as a gift from God to Abraham, and toward which the Israelites marched after they escaped Egyptian bondage.²⁰ Some of Jesus’ listeners may have thought that He was promising that the Romans would be driven out and the land returned to them where they would govern as a people. Most scholars believe that Jesus is quoting from the Psalms: “Humble people will get the land God promised, and they will enjoy peace.”²¹ But the apostle Paul gives his understanding: “Abraham and his descendants received the promise that they would get the whole world. But Abraham did not receive that promise because he followed the law. He received that promise because he was right with God through his faith.”²² Therefore, as far as Paul was concerned, this promise through Abraham is passed on to all who have faith in God fulfilling that promise for both Jewish believers and the church. However, Jesus was talking to a Jewish audience, and not doubt they held to the concept that one day Israel would be a free nation where they would be the ruling party. Paul was speaking to Gentiles and so for them it was a matter of believing that one day they would rule and reign with Jesus the Messiah over all the earth. Yet we must admit, that over the centuries that followed our Lord’s teaching, Christianity grew into world-wide dominance as a great religion and teacher of morals.

Verse 6: “Great blessings belong to those who want to do things without ulterior motives, for they will see God work things out.”

The KJV uses the word “righteousness.” This has often been thought of as some personally developed level of acquired holiness. As Dr. Roy Blizzard put it: “Unfortunately, we have been guilty of equating righteousness with holiness, or spirituality, being in a right relationship with God. We have never quite understood that in order to be in a right relationship with God, one must first be in a right relationship with his fellow man.”²³ In the original Greek the word simply means: integrity, virtue, purity of life, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting in relationship to the law and society. So in the religious and spiritual sense it means the same thing, only with respect to God’s laws and brotherly love. Another way of putting it, is seeking a way to do God’s will in this world.

It is not something that comes naturally, it must be sought after. The Psalmist puts it so reflectively: “As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find Him to come and stand before Him?”²⁴ We see this spoken of again in other Psalms.²⁵ The prophet Amos shares a message from God on this subject, “Look, the days are coming when I will cause a famine in the land. The people will not be hungry for bread. They will not be thirsty for water. No, they will be hungry for a word from the Lord”²⁶ But God is not just satisfied with our hunger to learn more and more about His will and plan for our lives, He wants to fill that hunger in such a way that we want more and more. Again the Psalmist puts this in a most poetic way: “Many people say, ‘I wish I could enjoy the good life. Lord, give us some of those blessings.’ But you have made me happier than they will ever be with all their wine and grain. When I go to bed, I sleep in peace, because, Lord, you keep me safe.”²⁷ We also find this theme continued in other Psalms.²⁸ The prophet Isaiah sees the spiritual side of this “I will pour water for thirsty people, and streams will flow through the desert. I will pour my Spirit on your children, and I will bless your family.”²⁹ He reemphasizes it again in other chapters.³⁰

So in the long run, righteousness can best be described as doing God’s will by the way we treat God and each other. Now we can see the connection when Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.‘”³¹ Our Lord was giving these guidelines because He knew that His followers were going to be sent out into the world as witnesses of the new covenant, to preach salvation by grace which flows from the love of God. How could they be effective if they insisted on making things work for their benefit, instead of doing things for God’s benefit.

That’s why a current phrase we often hear: “In it to win it!” does not apply here. Instead, we are in it because Jesus won it on the cross. The love and joy that we received from our heavenly Father is not ours to hoard and lather ourselves with. It is to be given away so that others my come to the same knowledge of the truth. Some of the happiest people you’ll ever meet are those through whom the Holy Spirit is working to win souls for Christ. And it works because they believe in what Jesus taught here in this beatitude.