The world is terribly confused about what blessedness is. Another problem is that the Church is more like the world in what it believes about blessedness. The confusions abound about this topic. However, there is no real need to be confused on this issue. While there are many teachings on this issue, Jesus is the One that we must listen to on this topic and any other. Jesus gave us specific teachings on the blessed life.First, we must look at what the word “blessed” means. Most think of it in terms of happiness, but to get at the depths of the meaning of the word and the biblical concept in its own context we must dig deeper. What is happiness? It would appear that the world thinks of happiness as the feeling of pleasure that goes along with whatever they like. So the world thinks of being happy when something they like happens and when things they don’t like don’t happen. But what we can’t miss is that the world operates on feelings of pleasure in response to things received or of something done to them in the material realm. The world thinks of happiness as being produced by what is obtained or by what is received. The world, then, is dependent on other people and things to produce for them the pleasures or attitudes that are needed to make them happy.
The biblical concept, however, is much different. The concept of blessedness is deeper than a mere superficial happiness. On the one hand the word can have the idea of happiness, but it really goes to an inner joy and not just the outward response. In another sense there is a blessedness that comes relative to the position one has granted in Christ. The truly blessed person in biblical terms is blessed no matter what happens to him or her because s/he is in a state of blessedness granted by the living God. There is nothing that can happen to the true believer that is not intended by God for good and He will turn everything to the good of His people (Rom 8:28-39). The true believer is also told that s/he has a Father that trains and disciplines a person out of love in order that s/he may share in His holiness (Heb 12:10). Believers can also know that whatever else happens to them, as long as they are beholding the glory of God they are being changed from one degree of glory to a greater degree of glory (II Cor 3:18).
While it is truly an astounding concept, the believer is blessed because of his position in Christ. All that the Father sends to His children in Christ is meant to make them like Christ which is the greatest blessing possible. The believer must develop the mindset that even if people abuse me and mistreat me, that should provoke joy in me and bring me to rejoicing in the Father (Mat 5:11-12). Believers are to consider themselves blessed because of their position in Christ at all times. They are to grow in humility and submission to God throughout their lives in order to be able to accept whatever trials the Lord brings to them and respond in joy. This does not mean that the joy will come in an instant each time, but that the believer sees that God is working all things to bring them to greater degrees of glory in order that they may love Him and see His glory through their Beloved in all things.
The Word of God tells us that those who are truly blessed either practice or are described by the following things: being poor in spirit, mourns, gentle or meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, are peacemakers, and are persecuted. There is nothing in that list that corresponds to what the world would call blessed or happy. There is hardly anything in that list that the vast majority within Christendom thinks is conducive to true happiness. Why is that? Most likely it is because hardly anyone believes what Jesus says anymore. If we really believe that Jesus is Lord, we need to understand that joy and happiness are found in being like Him and not the world. Those who love the world do not have the love of God in them (I John 2:15-17).
What are the things that the world pursues in its effort to be happy? The world teaches us that we are to think highly of ourselves and take pride in who we are and what we do. The world teaches us that we should be confident in our ability to make good and moral choices. The world teaches us to think that we are good and that when we do wrong it is nothing but a choice. The world thinks that happiness is to laugh and be entertained by all sorts of lewd and silly things. The world teaches that happiness is in getting revenge and getting back at people. The world teaches us that happiness is obtained by having more material things and being free to pursue sinful lifestyles. The world thinks that the more we can fill our minds with television and movies and certain kinds of books the happier we will be. The world thinks that if we can just stop people from saying bad things about us and not shoot us then happiness is just getting along. In other words, the world pursues riches, material possessions, and glory and honor for self. One would almost think that the world is at war with God when the list of things that the world wants is compared to what Christ says.
How can it be that the person that is poor in spirit and mourns is happier than the rich and worldly person that does all for himself and his own honor? The very fact that we might be surprised about this shows that the world has influenced us far more than Jesus has. Let us look at the life of Christ for a moment. Did the things of the world bring joy and happiness to Christ? What was it that He sought? Well, we do see Jesus going to parties and hanging out with people that were not religious. But Jesus constantly sought to manifest the name of God wherever He was and whatever He did. His pleasure and joy was in pleasing the Father. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. We can also know that all that Christ did in life was primarily for the glory of God, but also to earn righteousness for His bride the Church. We know from Ephesians 5:1-2 that Christ loved His people and gave Himself up for them. Then in Ephesians 5:25 we see that “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her.” The life and death of Christ were filled with suffering and persecutions and therefore with perfect joy and peace. Believers are to pursue what He pursued.
We must also remember that love is always attended with some degree of joy. Christ walked in perfect love all of His life and we know that because nothing is acceptable without love (I Cor 13:1-3). We see that the new commandment given by Christ, which was really not brand new, but a new way of looking at it, was for His disciples to love others as Christ had loved them (John 13:34). We know that Jesus was filled with the Spirit and all that have the Spirit have the joy of God (Rom 5:5; I John 3:24-25; 4:13-16). In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy (Gal 5:22). Jesus lived life on earth abiding in the love of the Father (John 15:10) and said that He wanted His disciples to have His joy in them and that their joy would be made full (John 15:11; 17:13). Jesus also prayed to the Father and said that He had made the name of the Father known “so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” I don’t think that it can be denied that despite being the Man of sorrows Jesus lived a life of perfect joy on earth. He was not wealthy and depended on the financial support of others. He also did not own a house and had a rock for a pillow. His joy was inner and it was from God.
As we begin a study on true blessedness, let us remember that Jesus Christ is our example in this. There is no true blessedness apart from His teaching and His life and death. The world wants to avoid all suffering and discomfort, but Jesus embraced those things and He had perfect love and joy. The Church must learn to look to Christ instead of the world in its pursuit of blessedness. In a different way, we must see that blessedness will not be found in just imitating Christ, but in the life of Christ being lived in and through us. We must always keep in mind as we pursue blessedness that we are not to pursue joy apart from Christ, but joy as a part of the life of Christ in us. So when we pursue what each beatitude tells us, we must never think that we can do this in our own strength and power. True blessedness is simply the Spirit working the life of Christ in us that we may share in His life.
This should necessarily teach us not to seek blessedness apart from the inner life of the believer. This is not something that is exclusively external, but is something that flows from the heart to the external. There may be many that try to copy the outward acts that the beatitudes prescribe, but without the heart they are not living by the power of God in the heart. Christianity is of the heart and not just the behavior. The essence of the beatitudes goes to the depths of the heart as well. What we are in the depths of our inner person is what we really are.
We should also note what the things are that make a person blessed. The kingdom of heaven is mentioned twice. Why should one want to be impoverished of spirit? We should desire that because that is the true state of affairs, but also because only those have the kingdom of heaven. What is that kingdom? It is the reign and rule of Jesus Christ in the hearts of man. The greatest blessing that man can attain to is to have Jesus Christ reigning in his heart and not his selfish and prideful desires that follow after the domain and rule of darkness. Blessedness is always linked with Christ in terms of what it is and what it leads to. This shows a great difference between what the world thinks of blessedness and what the Bible sets it out as. The world wants to follows the desires and rule of self as blessedness. Scripture says that the man following after the lusts of self is really in the bondage of sin and of the devil. The Bible also says that having Christ and His reign of grace is real blessedness. The essence of blessedness, then, is to be in the state where that which reigns over and in me is Christ. All that happens to me is because He wills it to show His life and glory in me. That is the best for me as well and is true blessedness.
God Loves... Himself 
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