These verses, the opening phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, hold some of the Bible’s most beautiful and best-loved poetry. Part of its beauty, though, lies in the fact that the meaning is not quite clear. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? What does it mean to “inherit the earth” or to be called “the children of God.” The fact that there are many possibilities causes us to linger over the phrases, pondering them.

Understood in the internal sense, these blessings show the spiritual states of the various people who could be receptive of the Lord and the new church he was launching. On a deeper level it shows that states within ourselves that can lead each of us to the Lord and to a deeper understanding of His truth today.

The “poor in spirit” are those who know little about spiritual things, but want to learn. Those that “mourn” are those who want to be good, but see no desire for good in their church. The “meek” are those who love to care for and serve others. To “hunger and thirst after righteousness” shows a desire to rise up, to learn about what’s good and to come to desire it.

The “merciful” are those who love their fellow people. The “pure in heart” are those who love only what is good. “Peacemakers” are those who are in harmony with the Lord, gaining knowledge from Him and wanting what He wants. And to be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” means acting out of love and care for others, even though you are condemned by others for it.

There’s something of a progression there, from those who simply want to learn to those who actively want to be good people to those who actually are good and acting out of love for others. None of it, though, describes those who are learned in the Jewish traditions, or even necessarily observant in terms of ritual; they are, rather, those who sense that it is possible to be a good person and are willing to make the effort.

And they are promised their rewards! The “kingdom of heaven” is the understanding the angels have of the Lord; “comfort” represents ideas that lead to the good of life; “inheriting the earth” is a state of loving others and being loved by them in return. The overall message is simple: If we truly wish to be good people, and are willing to let the Lord teach us how to be good people, we will end up filled with love and wisdom from Him. And that’s what we need to focus on: The desire to be good, and openness to ideas from the Lord. It’s not about ritual and intellectual “correctness”; it’s about ideas that lead us to be good.

But what of being reviled and persecuted? This depicts temptation, when the hells attack our newborn good desires and true understanding. They cause us to doubt our ability to be truly good and question the ideas that are leading us. And they can do it in many ways, reminding us of the fun we’ll be missing or reminding us of all the bad things we’ve ever done to render us hopeless. They will even attack the Bible and the ideas that come to us through it from the Lord; that’s represented by the idea that people also attacked the prophets.

These states, however, are blessed in their own way; only by battling these evils, which are rooted inside us, can we finally fully embrace the good life we have been striving for. That’s why it is pictured last, and that's why it leads to the “great reward” in heaven.

1218. Verse 7. Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory unto Him, signifies manifestation of joy that is from the affection of truth and from the affection of good. This is evident from the signification of "rejoicing," as being here joy from the affection of truth; also from the signification of "exulting," as being joy from the affection of good, for exulting has relation to the heart, thus to the good of love; also from the signification of "giving glory," as being to acknowledge, confess, and worship the Lord (See n. 678; "to glorify" has the same meaning. "To rejoice" and "to exult" signify joy from the affection of truth and from the affection of good, because all joy is a matter of affection. It is only from the things by which he is moved or which he loves that man has joy. There are two universal origins of all spiritual joys, one is from the affection or love of truth, the other from the affection or love of good. Joy from the affection of good belongs properly to the will and to deeds therefrom, while joy from the affection of truth belongs properly to the understanding and to speech therefrom. As the preceding verse treats of those who are in truths and of those who are in goods, and also of the glorification of the Lord by them, so the joy of all such and glorification by such is expressed in these words, "Let us rejoice and exult, and give glory unto Him."

(Continuation)

[2] 1. In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. The reason is that all things that appear in the spiritual world are immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine love; but all things that appear in the natural world are from the same, but by means of the sun of the world, which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things in the spiritual world exist immediately, is immaterial; but pure fire, through which all things in the material world exist mediately, is material. This is why all things that come forth in the spiritual world are by virtue of their origin spiritual, and all things that exist in the natural world are by virtue of their secondary origin material; and material things in themselves are fixed, permanent, and measurable. They are fixed because they endure, however the states of men may be changed, like the lands, mountains, and seas. They are permanent, because they recur regularly in turn, like the seasons, generations, and germinations. And they are measurable, because all things can be defined, as spaces by miles and furlongs, and these by feet and spans, and as times by days, weeks, months, and years. But in the spiritual world all things are as if they were fixed, as if they were permanent, and as if they were measurable, and yet in themselves they are not so. For they exist and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with those states, and consequently they change in whatever way those states change. But this takes place especially in the world of spirits, into which every man first comes after death, and is not so in heaven or in hell. This occurs in the world of spirits, because every man there undergoes changes of state, and is thus prepared for heaven or for hell.

[3] But spirits do not reflect upon these changes and variations, because they are spiritual and are thus in spiritual thought, and with this each and all things that they perceive by sense make one; also because they are separated from nature, and yet they see in the spiritual world things exactly like those they saw in the world, as lands, mountains, valleys, waters, gardens, forests, plants, palaces, houses, garments with which they are clothed, food by which they are nourished, animals, and themselves as men. All these things they see in a clearer light than that by which they saw like things in the world, and they feel them by a more exquisite touch than they had in the world. For these reasons man after death is wholly ignorant that he has put off his material part, and that he has emigrated from the world of his body into the world of his spirit. I have heard many declaring that they have not died, and that they could not understand how anything of their body could have been rejected in the grave; and for the reason that all things in that world are like those in this world; and they do not know that the things they there see and feel are not material, but are substantial from a spiritual origin, and yet are real things, since they have the same origin that all things in this world have, with this difference only, that something additional like an outer garment has been added from the sun of the world to those things that are in the natural world by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, permanent, and measurable. But yet I can assert that those things that are in the spiritual world are more real than those in the natural world, for the dead part that is added in nature to the spiritual does not constitute reality but diminishes it. This is evident from the state of the angels of heaven compared with the state of men on the earth, and from all things that are in heaven compared with all things in the world.