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.

7206. 'And with great judgements' means in accordance with the laws of order that spring from the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'judgements' as truths, dealt with in 1235, 6797, and in the highest sense, in which that word is used in reference to the Lord, as Divine truths, truths which are nothing other than the laws of order that spring from the Lord's Divine Human. For He is the origin of all order and so of all the laws of order. Those laws form the structure for the whole of heaven, consequently for the universe also. The laws of order or truths, which emanate from the Lord, forming the structure of the whole of heaven and of the universe, are what are called, in John 1:1-3, the Word by which all things were made; for the Word is Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Human. This means that all things in the spiritual world and also in the natural world have a connection with truth, as anyone who stops to reflect may recognize.

[2] In the proximate sense here the expression 'great judgements' is used to mean the truths in accordance with which those people will be judged who have molested others by introducing falsities, the ones meant by 'the Egyptians' and by 'Pharaoh'. The expression is also used to mean the truths in accordance with which those will be judged who will be released from molestations, the ones meant by 'the children of Israel'. By these judgements people steeped in falsities arising from evil are shown to be damned, and by these judgements people guided by truths arising from good are shown to be saved. Not that the truths which emanate from the Lord damn anyone, for all truths emanating from the Lord spring from His Divine Goodness, and so are nothing other than expressions of mercy. Rather, people expose themselves to damnation because they do not accept the Lord's mercy; for then they are governed by evils, and evils are damning. Nor do the truths emanating from the Lord save anyone if he believes that he is saved by virtue of the truths of faith present with him and not by mercy. For a person is full of evils and left to himself is in hell, but by the Lord's mercy he is withheld from evil and maintained in good, and with great force. The fact that both are meant by 'judgements', that is to say, both the damnation of those who are evil and the salvation of those who are good, is evident from those places in the Word where the last judgement is the subject, such as Matthew 25:31-45, and elsewhere.