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.

157. Since a person's spirit means his mind, 'being in the spirit', a phrase which occurs a number of times in the Word, means the state in which the mind is separated from the body. That was the state the Prophets were in when they saw the kind of things which happen in the spiritual world, so it is called 'the vision of God.' They were then in the same state as that of the spirits and angels of that world. In that state a person's spirit, as the visual capacity of his mind, can be transported from place to place while his body remains in one place. This is the state in which I have been for the last twenty-six years, with the difference that I have been simultaneously in the spirit and in the body, and only at times outside the body. Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel and John the writer of Revelation were evident from the following passages.

Ezekiel says: 'A spirit lifted me up, and brought me back to Chaldaea to the captives in a vision, in the spirit of God; so the vision which I had seen went up from me' (Ezekiel 11:1, 24). A spirit lifted him up and he heard behind him an earthquake (Ezekiel 3:12, 14). A spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven, and carried him off to Jerusalem, and he saw abominations (Ezekiel 8:3ff). He saw four creatures, which were Cherubim, and various sights with them (Ezek. chapters 1, 10); also a new earth and a new temple, and an angel measuring them (Ezek. chapters 40-48). He was then in receipt of a vision and in the spirit (Ezekiel 40:2; 13:5).

[2] Similar things happened to Zechariah, when he was with an angel and saw a man riding a horse among myrtles (Zechariah 1:8ff); four horns [Zechariah 1:18] and a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 2:1, 5ff); Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1ff); four chariots coming out between two mountains, and their horses (Zechariah 6:1ff). Daniel was in the same state when he saw four beasts coming up out of the sea and various other details about them (Daniel 7:1ff); the fights between a ram and a he-goat (Daniel 8:1ff). He saw these things in a vision (Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8); the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision and spoke with him (Daniel 9:21).

[3] It was the same with John when he wrote Revelation. He says that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day (Revelation 1:10); that he was carried in the spirit into the desert (Revelation 17:3); onto a high mountain in the spirit (Revelation 21:10); that he saw [horses] in a vision (Revelation 9:17). Elsewhere he says that he saw what he described, as for instance the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands; a tabernacle, a temple, an ark and an altar in heaven; a book sealed with seven seals, and horses that came out of it; four creatures around the throne; twelve thousand chosen from each tribe; then the Lamb upon Mount Zion; locusts coming up from the abyss; the dragon and his battle with Michael; a woman bearing a son, and fleeing into the desert because of the dragon; two beasts, one coming up from the sea, the other from the earth; a woman sitting on a scarlet beast; the dragon cast out into a lake of fire and brimstone; a white horse and a great banquet; the Holy City of Jerusalem coming down, with a description of its gates, wall and the foundations of the wall; a river of living water, and trees of life which bear fruit in every month; and much else besides. Peter, James and John were in a similar state when they saw Jesus transfigured; and so was Paul when he heard from heaven things past telling.