We’ll continue by asking what being “poor in spirit” has to do with loving God with everything we have. And, let’s remember that Jesus didn’t leave us wiggle room. He said everything by actually listing everything so as to leave no doubt.

So, in order to answer this, we actually have to go on an even deeper dive. Let’s take it slowly so as not to overload the circuits. A reminder of where we are:

Jesus is talking to what is probably a fairly good-sized group of people, including his loyal followers (disciples), on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He’s undoubtedly of a mind to give them a survey lecture on things he considers as fundamental to his life and ministry. After getting their attention, he starts off with a bang.

In order to understand this starting point to his most famous set of teachings, we’ve needed to consider (1) what he’s talking about, (2) the meaning behind the words, and (3) the context for why he chose this topic.

This brings us to his crystal-clear direction regarding the top priorities for our attention and behavior.

Now, the deeper dive is to try to understand why Jesus gave us those two commandments. There has to be a reason, even though on the surface, adhering to them seems practically impossible.

There has to be a purpose.

In fact, this goes to the heart of why God even wants us around in the first place. After all, being God (if you believe in him), he actually doesn’t need us! So, what gives?

Drumroll …

It’s because God created us to love. Because he created us for love. Because he is love.

Dallas Willard is one of my all-time favorite Christian thinkers and he defines love as “willing the good of another.”

Willing. As in making it happen.

(I could go off here on a related tangent about how God is love and what that has to do with the Christian God, conceived as three persons in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, I’ll spare everyone that detour!)

Let’s just stick with the “God is love and, so, created us in his image, which means to love,” among other things. (This can reasonably raise all sorts of other questions like “what is free will?” and “why is there evil in the world?” but we’re not going there today and we don’t need to. I have no intention, here, of examining all of the elements of the Christian faith. I’m just trying to address where this one phrase came from.)

Why does God want us to love him?

Because to the degree that we do, we will understand him and the nature of ultimate reality.

If we live within a deeply loving relationship with God, then we are immersed in the thing and that ripples out everywhere. I have written a lot about grace before, which I kind of casually claim is the most powerful force in the universe. Well, grace is one manifestation of love. You get the point.

We’ve all heard the story of Moses going up the mountain and bringing down God’s law, having spoken to God. The people wanted to know the rules for their new journey, having fled slavery in Egypt. They believed God had looked upon them with favor … they were somehow chosen and they looked to Moses as their leader and human deliverer. Moses ended up telling them the basic conditions for staying in favor with God. By living this way, they’d be focusing on the right stuff and staying away from the wrong stuff.

If sin can be defined (which I do) as that which separates us from God, this was a major source of prescriptions to avoid such an outcome.

And, the very first prescription was : “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3

Now, what is God trying to tell us, whether through Moses or Jesus?

What is meant by loving God with all we have and by putting no other gods before God? Why is this Ground Rule #1?

It’s because we are always putting other gods before God and we are always focusing on things we consider more important than loving God. God, being God, knows this but he’s still holding firm. We’re heading down the wrong path when we choose to ignore or try to diminish the authority of his foundational commandments. On the contrary, to the extent we follow these primary commandments from both the Old Testament (Hebrew scriptures) and New Testament (Christian scriptures), we come close to God, which is really the point of the whole thing.

This can be better understood if we bring the word idol into our examination. The dictionary definition of idol is both “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship”and “a person or thing that is greatly loved, admired or revered such as a movie idol.”

In fact, in our context, idols are those things we elevate in importance so much that, in actuality, we end up worshipping them (treating them with reverence and devotion). Actual idols can be things like money, fame, power, jobs, our children, certain possessions or pastimes. These are things that can, eventually, get control over us and skew us away from things that are more important for our well-being, especially when you toss God into the equation. I have been guilty of this and continue to be guilty of this. Creating idols is a full-time activity for nearly all human beings. (There is a big reason for this, by the way.)

An easy way to test ourselves here is to ask if we love thinking about something or doing something rather than giving ourselves fully to God. Show of hands?

This, then, is at the core of what it means to be “poor in spirit.” It is the understanding that God’s love is key and a model for how we should love. And, if a huge component of God’s love is grace (unmerited favor towards another), then we need to always be “other focused.”

I ended up the last post by implying that keeping the two main commandments is basically impossible. So, why did Jesus issue them? No matter how hard we try, we find out we can’t keep them.

This causes all sorts of problems. Here are three of them.

1. Some people who are Christians will keep trying and get very frustrated. This can turn them bitter and resentful, achieving the opposite result. They can believe they are failures.
2. Some people who are Christians will give lip service to the commandments and end up living their lives without them as a true guide.
3. Some people who are not Christians will point to these as idealistic and unrealistic demands which prove there either isn’t a God or, if there is, he’s not a good one.

A person who is truly “poor in spirit” and who also understands the nature of the first two commandments is the opposite of the narcissist, who screams, ME! ME! ME!

Instead, Jesus is calling for blessing on he or she who wakes up each day and inquires of God, “who can I love anew today? Can you please help me to consider my specific needs less and fill that gap by considering the needs of others? Please forgive my trespasses (wrongs against others) as you forgive mine and I know I’ve done a lot of trespassing. I realize I don’t deserve favor because I’ve forgotten you, not recognized you, and acted against what I know you tell me is best for me. God, I realize that you are the air I breathe but I don’t always act that way and I’m sorry. I realize I don’t pay enough attention to the suffering around me. Help me never to forget those in need and also please help me to bless them. Please help me to turn my attention away from things that matter little to you in the end and that actually keep me from focusing on you. To be honest, God, I am on my knees, humbled in the face of who you are and what you have done for me, for which I am eternally grateful. Amen.”

I’d say this is getting us closer to understanding Jesus’ opening statement. In fact, we still have to look at the second part of his sentence but we’re already part way there.