The Narrow Path Ministries

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

Luke 6:20
Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God belongs to you.

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I've always been taught that the beatitude in Matthew is speaking of humility.
All the teaching and commentary I could find (save 1) agrees.

However, Dallas Willard, in the book The Divine Conspiracy disagrees. He sees that when you look at the equivalent beatitude in Luke that doesn't include the phrase "in spirit", you see that Jesus is saying that the poor will inherit the kingdom of God. Since we don't have to be poor to be in the kingdom of God, the reference in Matthew may not be pointing to a condition at all. He sees the phrase "poor in spirit" to mean those without any spiritual qualities and potential, calling them "spiritual zeroes."

With this in mind, he states that this beatitude is about the availability of the kingdom of God to everyone, because its available to those whom we would least expect it to be with human understanding. He disagrees that it is about a character quality.

I'm looking to understand as I'm planning to teach on it.

Your thoughts please.

Dave

Hi Dave,

The accounts in Matthew and Luke, although similar in some ways, seem to be describing two different events. The account in Matthew is usually called "The Sermon on the Mount" whereas, the one in Luke is called "The Sermon on the Plain.

Notice also, that in the Matthew account, Jesus wanted to get away from the crowds and intruct His disciples only:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. Matthew 5:1

But in the Luke account, Jesus instructed not only his disciples, but a great multitude:

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Luke 6:17

The Matthew account seems to deal chiefly with the inner man, but the Luke account with outward circumstances.

As you pointed out, in Luke it's the poor, but in Matthew it's the poor in spirit.

In Luke it's "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied."
In Matthew it's ""Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

I also notice that there are woes for the crowds, woe to the rich, woe to those who have plenty of food, woe to those who laugh it up, woe to the popular, but in the Matthew account, there are no woes forthcoming to His disciples.