Blessed Are The Poor in Spirit, Not Those Who Seek Pity
Intro:
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” At first glance, you or I would read this verse, ponder it for a moment, and mindfully move onto read the rest of the passage or on with the rest of our day without thinking much of it. But in doing this we would only be doing ourselves a disservice. The Truth of God knows no word count and in this scripture is a necessary message for our day.
The Gen-Z and Millennial generations have been dubbed as the “entitled generations,” which unfortunately isn’t that far from the truth. Many news articles say that employers don’t want to hire Gen-Z or Millennials because we are lazy, entitled, and difficult to work with. How did we get here? How did we divulge into this pit, and can we get out of it? What would happen if we stayed in this trap? What would happen if we escaped?
Today, we are constantly inundated with ideas of oppression (often systemic), injustice (often systemic), “your truth,” and how we should do what is best for ourselves and our interests. But these lies, amongst others that are pushed by the culture, are 1) anti-Gospel and 2) strategic traps to lead us down a dangerous road of entitlement and self-prescribed pity.
Why would I say these are traps that seek to damage the witness and effectiveness of a Christian attempting to live out their faith boldly? Because these lies are consistent with 2 ideas. The first being the idea that “their sin is greater and more egregious than my sin.” The second, being, that we often forget that God commands and calls us to put the past in the past and simply forgive those that have wronged us.
We may think that God calls us to always get our way, but the Bible is explicit that believers aren’t to indulge in pity. Ezekiel 24:14 “‘I, the Lord, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you,’ declares the Lord God.”
How Have We Fallen Into the Entitlement Trap?
Our journey into entitlement and self-prescribed pity was no short feat, but one marked by an anti-Christ spirit that’s found in prosperity without the person of Christ. For a long time, Christians have been told, taught, and lectured on what the Gospel offers to us, how the Gospel will bless us, prosper us, and promote us in this life. Subsequently taking our eyes off of the sacrifice of Jesus and placing them on the benefits of living the Christian life. The creation instead of the Creator. Romans 1:25 “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” The idea of living a lie and trading the Truth of God for a lie is juxtaposed right next to the idea that we worship the benefits of God, but not God, Himself.
Now, the ideas of prosperity, blessing, and promotion aren’t unbiblical in themselves, but when they become isolated from the Cross of Christ then what were some of the fruits of Jesus’ sacrifice become gods and idols in themselves. Once our eyes come off of Jesus we also look elsewhere for our moral framework, which often times the place we look is to ourselves.
“The lie that leads to lawless living, lawlessness, has been one the enemy has used since the days of Adam and Eve. But as time has shown us, its been one of his more effective vices.”
The Effects of Desiring Pity:
Naturally, when one takes their eyes off of Jesus, they become a law unto themselves, which is most commonly referred to as lawlessness. So, as one becomes focused on only the benefits of the Gospel and not the Cross of Christ, they are now lawless with their idols being 1) themselves and 2) the desired benefits they wish to have for themselves. This is nothing short of a headfirst dive into lawlessness and idolatry. Which Jesus straightforwardly addresses by saying, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:23). The context that precedes this verse makes this especially potent for Christians.
Immediately before these verses we see Jesus address the very scenario described above. He outlines a group of followers; I would even say practicing Christians. They have reaped the benefits of His Gospel but since they also practiced their own law, way, and moral framework and not Jesus' law, way, and moral framework they never actually followed Jesus to begin with but only sought to gain what He had to offer. The Gospel is not a call to living a blessed life, but a call to die to everything we desire to gain, all comfort we desire to seek, and all dreams we aspire to live. But in this death is where we find the true nature of Jesus, the meaning of a real relationship with Him, and learn how to follow Him for who He is and stop living for substitutes.
“We often forget the words of the great Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” ”
The people Jesus describes in Matthew 7 will profess with their mouths that they are owed salvation because they did these seemingly spiritual things, but what we often miss is that Jesus wants our obedience so much more than our sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22), because He already was our sacrifice. So, if the Cross is lost, pride, entitlement, and self-prescribed pity will fill that void. Therefore, since entitlement is grounded in pride then those who take part in this demonic activity of pride (with no signs of repentance) will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Obviously, we all deal with pride. But I'm not speaking to those who know they deal with pride, but to those who fail to admit that pride actually manifests itself in their lives. I’m speaking to the people who are unrepentant in said pride and allow that pride to influence their worldview, their relationship with Christ, and then, naturally, their relationship with people. I’m speaking to those that have been operating out of a worldview of self-prescribed pity and not the Bible.
The Forgiveness Dynamic: Who Are We That We Call Ourselves Worthy?
However, the real question is: what makes us feel that we are owed anything from anyone? What have we done, as Christians, to be owed anything? In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus speaks of forgiveness. In doing so He uses an extremely potent example between a master and a slave to explain this dynamic to us.
In this, the slave (who represents you and I) owes the master (God) a debt that he could never pay off in 100 lifetimes. But after the slave pleads fervently with the master, the master forgives his debt. However, immediately after the slave is forgiven, he then goes to a man who owes him 100 days wages and gets him thrown in jail, because he did not have the money to repay him even though this man pled with him. When the master finds out about this, the slave is summoned, and the master revokes his mercies from him. Why were his mercies revoked? Because the slave abused what he had already been given, which was more than he could have ever paid off, but the master forgave him anyways. However, when the slave was owed something he showed no remembrance of the mercy he had already been given. In short, Jesus rebukes the one who feels they are owed anything after he, who owed much, had been forgiven of much.
The first slave was entitled and entitlement stripped him of forgiveness for his brother. To the Christian, we are owed nothing but have already been given everything by our gracious and merciful Lord. We have no room to feel that God owes us something, the world owes us something, victimizers owe us something, or any other person we or category we could think of.
The Modern Manifestations of Pity:
Unfortunately, our generation has fallen into the deadly trap that ensnared the first slave and even more unfortunate is that the church has too. We oftentimes look so much at the sins of others that “we do not notice the log that is in” our own eye. But this is exactly what pride desires. Pride desires for us to become a slave to pity and to entitlement.
We often forget that if the enemy is able to get us solely focused on supposed injustices and systems that are forever against us, then we will actually lose the real battle for righteousness. We often fail to recognize that the very things the world tries to get us to fight for are to pull us from the fight for good against the very real threat of evil. (Yes, to those who refuse to believe, Christians should be very much engaged in the very real fight for good against evil and this does not mean a culture war, but this will covered in a separate blog). The culture wars often cause us to forsake our mission because if we become so worried about our earthly riches and power, then we will completely forget and forsake the Gospel of Jesus. Now, I’m not talking about or to the Christians who are actively engaged in the real fight of reclaiming godly principles and ideas, institutions, and spheres. But I am speaking to those who wish to use their title of “Christian” to gain earthly wealth and power with no semblance of actually doing it in honor of the Lord and His Kingdom.
This manifests with some feeling they are owed reparations for past injustices, some desiring acceptance into universities and jobs based off the characteristics of their person but not character of their heart, and a social gospel where Jesus is their social revolutionary and their means by which they will achieve “justice” on this earth. Self-prescribed pity would say these are worthy objectives, but these only lead us into a theological liberalism that abandons the standards of the God of the Bible and purports that we make Him into our own image.
““We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.” ”
My Question to Christians:
Was Jesus not already your justice and do you not trust that he will make all things right? Job 8:3 “Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?” For us to focus so much on a person’s characteristics we have in turn shown partiality (James 2:1-13) which is prohibited amongst the Saints. By focusing so much on the sin of others we, ourselves, have failed to take the log out of our own eye (Matthew 7:3-5), the grievous mistake made by the slave in Matthew 18. There are many more examples to be noted, but we must realize that the culture strives for us to become enslaved to self-prescribed pity which is bent on being served. However, the Gospel commands that I do what I can to serve you at MY expense, not yours.
When was the last time we stepped back to take a look at our entitlement and how it leads us into a theological liberalism, pacifism, and demonic inclusivity that is not found in the bible? Have we become so entitled to think that God condones rampant sexuality and promiscuity because “the culture has changed?” If we do, we preach a false gospel. Have we become so entitled to think that God condones racism, but only if it’s against those that have been past victimizers of race? If we do, we preach a false gospel. Have we become so entitled to think that God has not placed specific Christians in America for such a time as this that we demean and demoralize any Christian who has the spine to stand against the culture and promote biblical ideas? If we do, we preach a false gospel. Have we become so entitled to think abortion isn’t the outright killing of an innocent life and is not rooted in a racist eugenics ideology? If we do, we preach a false gospel. Have we become so entitled to think that God is fine with the rampant fatherlessness plaguing our culture, but we still continue to spout as if fatherlessness isn’t a real issue? If we do, we preach a false gospel. Have we become so entitled to think that sin, simply, isn’t sin? If we do, we preach a false gospel.
Plainly put, entitlement amplifies “their sin” and blinds us to our sin. But herein lies another issue. If we are blind to our own sin, how can we see evil for what it truly is? Entitlement makes us more concerned with being politically and culturally correct that we start to become more concerned with advancing or not inhibiting secular agendas and ideologies, that we have now become deceived in ourselves and have committed the grievous sin of promoting evil.
Let me be clear, if we are blind to evil we are doing the work of the enemy. If we are blind to the actual evils of our day, we are ineffective and poor ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we have become so entitled to think we have the right to stand against Christians that are actively and biblically advancing Kingdom values then we have become wickedly deceived and must repent. Entitlement has no place in the Kingdom because entitlement gives a foothold to demonic evil. If we are to continue in an unrepentant entitlement we will soon find ourselves only inhabiting a shell of Christianity, promoting doctrines of demons, and a progressive social gospel that seeks to only advance human interests and not those of God.
To rid ourselves of entitlement we must learn to put the past in the past (Isaiah 43:18-19), be faithful with what we have been given (Matthew 13), forgive others 70 times 7 (Matthew 18:15-20), love those who you feel have wronged you (Luke 7:47), and stop believing we are owed anything but instead fall at the foot of the Cross and worship the Lamb of God. He is the one who will one day come back as the Lion of God and make all things right, all ways straight, and all paths clear. We must stop attempting to enact our own perverted view of justice because of our self-inflicted entitlement. Has God not bore our sin? Has God not given us grace? Has God not equipped and called us for His work?
“Ignorance is not bliss and to those who know much, much is required. Luke 12:48 ‘but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.’”
What Entitlement Actually Offers:
Entitlement robs us of who God is and what He gives to us. In return, we gain a “cheap grace” and front row a seat on the fence of a so called “neutrality.” Eric Metaxas states “the devil owns the fence you are sitting on.” The message of Jesus bids us to pick a side and take arms against the demonic forces of our day (Revelation 3:15-16). “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
A communion with entitlement is antithetical to the Gospel because God already paid the price for you to be free, as well as for you to walk in the assurance that He will come back and make all things right. If we fail to trust in the promises of God, entitlement will follow. If we become so short sited that we only see the issues in front of us, we are robbed of the prophetic Spirit of God which calls us to call forth what is not as though it is. Entitlement robs us of the moment God has placed us in, pits us against those actually working for the kingdom, which puts us on the sideline ultimately being lukewarm and lawless.
Jesus did not die for us to live in entitlement and pity over the things that have happened to us. He came so that we would be set free from all iniquity. An entitlement mindset is one that harps on the circumstances and situations of old, while also refusing to believe they have anything else to talk about. Entitlement causes us not to value the sacrifices of those that have come before us and to bask in the things that have already been paid for. Entitlement enslaves us to ourselves with our only hope of escape coming through repentance to the God of the Bible. Only a true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is able to set us free from the bondage of the world.
Entitlement, unfortunately, is a cancer sweeping the Church and we must return to the Gospel of Jesus that calls us to boldly live out our faith to rid ourselves of it. If a tumor is not diagnosed and removed it can only grow and eventually kill the organism it inhabits. Jesus never called us to whine, seek pity, and wish we were somewhere different. He instead asked us to take the Gospel into all the world and to pick up our cross (our deathbed) and to follow Him.
How do we Maneuver this World Staying Free from Entitlement?
Thankfully, Jesus knew we would struggle with this and laid out in His sermon on the mount how we are to navigate it. Matthew 5:38-41 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”
Jesus is not telling us to allow the world to push us around and walk all over us, but He is instead teaching and showing us how to not be a slave to the world and its ways. These situations present every worldly moment to become entitled and seek pity, but Jesus says instead of becoming a slave to the circumstance and a slave to entitlement and pity, we go the extra mile so that in our good works they might also glorify the Father.
Last Thoughts:
Entitlement and self-pity commands that you do what I feel you should do, but the Gospel commands that I do what I can to serve you at MY expense, not yours. We are owed nothing but have been given everything. Christians, in a day where doctrines of sensuality are berating us, we can never forget this foundational truth. Entitlement will rob us of the unity of the Spirit, if we allow it. Service destroys entitlement and is the only way we are able to escape it. The full knowledge of what we have already been given is the key to our freedom.