2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. With these enjoyments and hopes, we may cheerfully welcome low or painful circumstances.The Spirit of God and the Spirit of AntichristĤ 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. May we find mercy from the Lord may we be owned as his children, and inherit his kingdom. Blessed Jesus! how different are thy maxims from those of men of this world! They call the proud happy, and admire the gay, the rich, the powerful, and the victorious. Yet there is nothing in our sufferings that can merit of God but God will provide that those who lose for him, though life itself, shall not lose by him in the end. This saying is peculiar to Christianity and it is more largely insisted upon than any of the rest. Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake are happy. If the peace-makers are blessed, woe to the peace-breakers! 8.

They keep the peace that it be not broken, and recover it when it is broken. They love, and desire, and delight in peace and study to be quiet. As God cannot endure to look upon their iniquity, so they cannot look upon his purity. None but the pure are capable of seeing God, nor would heaven be happiness to the impure. The heart must be purified by faith, and kept for God. Here holiness and happiness are fully described and put together. The pure in heart are happy for they shall see God. We must have compassion on the souls of others, and help them pity those who are in sin, and seek to snatch them as brands out of the burning. We must not only bear our own afflictions patiently, but we must do all we can to help those who are in misery. Though all desires for grace are not grace, yet such a desire as this, is a desire of God's own raising, and he will not forsake the work of his own hands. Our desires of spiritual blessings must be earnest. These are purchased for us by the righteousness of Christ, confirmed by the faithfulness of God. Righteousness is here put for all spiritual blessings. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are happy. Meekness promotes wealth, comfort, and safety, even in this world. These meek ones are happy, even in this world. The meek are those who quietly submit to God who can bear insult are silent, or return a soft answer who, in their patience, keep possession of their own souls, when they can scarcely keep possession of anything else. Such mourners shall be comforted by their God. Heaven is the joy of our Lord a mountain of joy, to which our way is through a vale of tears. That godly sorrow which worketh true repentance, watchfulness, a humble mind, and continual dependence for acceptance on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, with constant seeking the Holy Spirit, to cleanse away the remaining evil, seems here to be intended. The kingdom of grace is of such the kingdom of glory is for them. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer.

They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. Commentary on Today's Verse Commentary on Matthew 5:3-12

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