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.

4405. On marriages and adulteries

There were certain spirits who were attacking me with a special cunning by means of a very gentle wave-like inflow, and quickly turned away all my thoughts. Their special inflow was one such as I had not felt before. After many such tricks and devices, as well as symbolic portrayals put before them to move them away from such things, but in vain, I finally spoke with one of them, noting that when he lived in the world he had been the leader of a certain army, and I spoke with him about marriage and adulteries, realizing that in the life of his body he had considered adulteries as of no account.

I spoke with him in the language of spirits, illustrated by symbolic mental imagery, for the language of spirits is of that nature that when they are expressing something, they also present the matters as it were visually, but in ways that cannot be described. They present feelings, passions and the like vividly by variations of lights, and in differing ways there, and so forth. This speech is run through very rapidly, so that more can be expressed in a moment than can be done by human speech in hours.

The conversation was about adulteries, and the fact that they are wicked, even though they may appear to such as they, in the light of their lifestyle, as delightful. But that they are wicked is shown by the fact that marriages are the seminaries of the human race, and thence of the heavenly Kingdom, thus of all people in the lands, and of the souls, spirits and angels in the heavens, and are therefore to be kept holy, nor ever to be violated. Therefore also in the Word and in the precepts of the decalogue, they are so severely forbidden. Civil laws also in the whole globe of lands utterly forbid them, because they are to be abhorred; and when such individuals only approach toward heavenly societies, they smell the stench of their own filthiness, and are cast headlong as if into hell, for the reason that they are the opposites of heavenly qualities, and because heaven and mutual love, which makes heaven, is founded on marriage love, and the Kingdom itself of the Lord is a marriage, and all marriage love descends from it, because from the Lord, who most deeply joins together, penetrates and touches the minds; also, that the light of his lifestyle, which is adulterous yet appears to him so delightful, if he should only approach toward heaven, would be turned into dreadful hellish darkness, so that he would then realize with horror that his own life, from which that light comes, was utterly infernal.

It was granted me to say these things to him, who then replied that he had never felt this way in the world. He wanted to raise arguments, but was told that he could raise a thousand arguments in favor of the pleasure of his life, even until he was completely blinded and believed them to be entirely lawful, for which reason he was not permitted to put up arguments, because what has been said is most true, and these are heavenly and eternal truths, also attested to by actual experience, as said, and it was finally proved that adulteries destroy marriage love, which is the fundamental of all the loves of heaven. Being thus convinced, he was displeased, and unable to say anything, declaring that he had never heard or thought such a thing in the life of the body. Pr. Eugene. It was further said, because he wanted to put up arguments, that he would first have to refute those truths that have been told as not being truths, but must not speak from the pleasure of his lifestyle, and after that, when convinced that it is filthy, and that he is in the other life, then he can look at his arguments and see them for what they are.