The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 230

Vers. 3-9.-ne benedktion of good characttr. The word "blessed" is ta.ken from beati, which is used in the Vulgate. By it our Lord indicates whe.t will be es~oially esteemed_, and receive special honour, in his new kingdom, To see our Lords point we should observe what the Pharisaic teachers of his day were proclaiming. According to them, God's blessing rested upon minute acts of obedience; upon precision in keeping every detail of a series of elaborate, man-made rules. The teaching of the day was surface-teaching. God's blessing rested on good conduct, but it was not moral conduct; it was conduct regarded ecclesiastically, reckoned by wearisome amplification of Mosaic rites and rules. (Of this illustration may be given from some of the rabbinical sabbath laws.) I. GoD's BLESSING RESTS ON OHARAOTEU. This is the revelation brought by Christ. This is the point of his teaching. This is the essence of his mission. According to the Pharisees a man need not be a good man to be an accepted man with God. They were not themselves" good men," and yet they never for a moment doubted their own acceptance. Now, in this our Lord did but revive the work of the prophets, who were sent to teach men that God gave his blessing to moral righteousness, and not to mere ritualistic obedience (see Isa. i.). It is usual to contrast the subjects of the Beatitudes with the strong, active virtues that were prized by paganism, which meant" valour" when it spoke of "virtue." But that can hardly be our Lord's contrast. We must seek for the prevailing ideas of the people to whom he spake ; and then we find the contrast is between goodness as conduct, and goodness as character inspiring conduct. II. CnAltACTEB DEPENDS ON STATES OF MllID. It will be noticed that our Lord deals with character in its fountains rather than in its expressions. He commends the "poor in spi,rit." Five states of mind are presented as the bases of character on which God's benedictions can rest. 1. Humility. 2. Penitence. 3. Meekness. 4. Mercifulness. 5. Purity. Let these be the rootages of character in a man, we can be quite sure what its flowering~, in all the relations of life, will be. Test the Pharisee by these five tests, and his goodness of mere conduct is exposed. IIL CHARACTERS WILL BE suru: TO DECIDE coNDUOT, This was our Lord's con- stant teaching. "Make the tree good, and the fruit will come right." Character.is to conduct as the life is to the body. '!'here is health in the body when there is purity and vigour in the life.-R. T. Ver. 6.-The Divine reward of th, spiritually minded. St, Paul uses this word, "To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." But there is a polemical, controversial, doctrinal force in his use, which we are not just now needing. Dr. Bushnell has a very striking sermon on "The Efficiency of the Passive Virtuea" ('New Life,' p. 280) ; but that is not precisely our Lord's point here, though they are" passive virtues" which he commends. They who" hu_nger and thirst aft?r righteousness" are they who have a strong sense of God, who estimate the1;11selves ID his light, and so discover that their one supreme need is righteousness; and 1t must be righteousness according to God's idea. L M.AB BAB A SPIRITUAL NATURE, AND BPIDITUAL NEEDS, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." "Man was made for God, and can find no rest till he finds rest in him." Two things tend to crush down the spiritual nature, and silence the cry of the spiritual needs. 1. Excessive concern for the body. 2. Excessive demands of religious routine. The first is always doing its mischievous work; the second has its evil influence at times. It was doing an almost fatal work in the times of Christ. II. HIS JliNHOOD DEPENDS ON DUE ATTENTION TO THEM, "Mii.n doth not live by bread alone." His soul-hunger is of far greater importance than his body-hunger. Illustrate, that man is not a true, full man who, by reason of the absorption of his powers in busineBB, has no response to the worlds of thought or of art So the man is not a true, full man who makes no attempt to satisfy the hunger of his soul for ri9hteo1LBnt:88, llL FOSTER THE SOUL'S LONGDl'GB FOR BIGIITEOUSNESB, AND THEY WU.L GROW INTO SANCTIFYING PASSIONS. They will become the supreme purpose of life. They will put character-judged according to ihe Divine standard-in its proper place, e.nd the.~ cm. v.1-48.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 223