20061001

What does it mean to be poor in spirit?  It does not mean financial poverty, nor does it mean emotional depression. Poverty of spirit is the personal acknowledgment of one’s spiritual bankruptcy before God.   It refers to the person who realizes his spiritual bondage and his personal unworthiness before God.

The importance of poverty of spirit lies in the fact that no one can be a Christian believer without this needful characteristic.  Apostle Paul speaks of this in the early chapters of the letter to the Romans.  In the first two and a half chapters, we are taught that instead of being self-sufficient and acceptable before God, we are by nature rebels. Instead of being worthy to stand on our own two feet before God, we have broken God’s commandments, sinned against God and fully deserve his judgment and punishment.  Instead of being able to boast of our achievements, our self-sufficiency, our wisdom and our earthly possessions, we stand condemned as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19).

Only when we realize that this is the true condition of every human being can real poverty of spirit be born within our hearts.  The blindfold of self-righteous and self-sufficient deception must be removed from our eyes so that we are able to see our need for grace, mercy and forgiveness from God.  In order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we first must learn to be emptied of all self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-importance, self-righteousness and self-centeredness.

The importance of this teaching lies in the fact that this is the starting point for evangelism and the preaching of the gospel.  In an attempt to avoid offence and anger on the part of those whom we seek to share the gospel with, we sometimes present the gospel message as a message of ‘bonus happiness’ or ‘added benefits’.  We tell unbelievers: “Your life as it stands is well and good, but believe in the Lord Jesus and you will gain extra benefits and additional happiness in your life.”  This is a distortion of the gospel message as presented in the Bible and skirts around the real problem – the problem of sin and the judgment that it deserves.  As witnesses of the grace of God, we are to follow the example of Paul and address this issue robustly in order that unbelievers may be convicted of their sin, their need for forgiveness and come before God in repentance and in poverty of spirit.