Living the Beatitudes In the Beginning Blessed is the man whom thou choosest.—Psalm 65:4 The Sermon on the Mount is considered by most Christians as the keynote speech of Jesus to introduce the Gospel age. The series of eight (or nine) beatitudes which open this discourse of the Master form a sort of preamble to it. It is these blessings of the beatitudes which constitute the theme for this issue of The Herald. Each of the beatitudes is given in the form of a conditional promise. The stipulated qualifications form an outline of Christian character to which Jesus wishes his disciples to conform. These characteristics, briefly summarized are:
In a sense these furnish for the New Testament what the ten commandments did for the Old—an outline of the qualities of the one whom Jehovah approves. The contrast between the two illustrates the difference between the Law dispensation and the dispensation of Grace. The negative “thou shalt nots” of the Law are replaced with the “thou shalts” of Christ. In still another sense these attributes can be profitably compared with those given by the apostle Paul in his inspired examination of love (1 Corinthians 13). In fact, Brother Russell makes the following suggestion: “We advise reading alternately each Sunday our Lord’s delineation of the graces which will insure his blessing and the apostle Paul’s description of the same graces summed up under the name Love” (Reprints, p. 2240). In a similar sermon, sometimes referred to as “The Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:20-26), Jesus contrasts a series of blessings with a series of woes. Let us be careful that our lives are worthy of the blessings and not deserving of the woes. It is with a sincere desire to encourage spiritual growth into a character like unto the “Author and Finisher of our Faith” that we, the editors, place this issue of the magazine in the hands of our readers. |