Many sayings in the Gospel ought to sound strange if we really considered their meaning. Why, indeed, should those who mourn, hunger, or suffer persecution be called “blessed”? And how can “poverty of spirit” help? Of course, a hungry person who knows that they will soon be fed is happy because...
Many sayings in the Gospel ought to sound strange if we really considered their meaning. Why, indeed, should those who mourn, hunger, or suffer persecution be called “blessed”? And how can “poverty of spirit” help? Of course, a hungry person who knows that they will soon be fed is happy because they will soon receive what they long for. A person weeping in grief can likewise be happy if they are certain that relief will soon come, as can someone being persecuted who understands that they have only a little longer to endure. Yet all this is still only future happiness, whereas Jesus speaks of these people's blessedness here and now, while the triumph of the Kingdom still lies ahead.
Perhaps we can answer the question by turning to the original meaning of the word “blessed”—or, more precisely, to its Hebrew original, which described a person receiving strength and support from God. Then everything falls into place: all those whom Jesus names can indeed rely on God as they await the coming triumph of the Kingdom that the Saviour brought into the world. And the poverty of spirit He mentions (although Jesus, who spoke Aramaic, most likely simply said “the poor” here) was a necessary condition for receiving help from above: after all, we can entrust ourselves completely to God only when we know for certain that, apart from Him, there is no one and nothing else on which we can truly rely. Then the path into the Kingdom, once unbearably hard, becomes not simple but light, like the burden of which the Saviour speaks.
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6:1 Children, obey your parents - In all things lawful. The will of the parent is a law to the child. In the Lord - For his sake.For this is right - Manifestly just and reasonable.
6:2 Honour - That is, love, reverence, obey, assist, in all things.The mother is particularly mentioned, as being more liable to be slighted than the father. Which is the first commandment with a promise - For the promise implied in the second commandment does not belong to the keeping that command in particular, but the whole law. Exo 20:12
6:3 That thou mayest live long upon the earth - This is usually fulfilled to eminently dutiful children; and he who lives long and well has a long seed - time for the eternal harvest. But this promise, in the Christian dispensation, is to be understood chiefly in a more exalted and Spiritual sense.
6:4 And, ye fathers - Mothers are included; but fathers are named, as being more apt to be stern and severe. Provoke not your children to wrath - Do not needlessly fret or exasperate them.But bring them up - With all tenderness and mildness. In the instruction and discipline of the Lord - Both in Christian knowledge and practice.
6:5 Your masters according to the flesh - According to the present state of things: afterward the servant is free from his master.With fear and trembling - A proverbial expression, implying the utmost care and diligence. In singleness of heart - With a single eye to the providence and will of God.
6:6 Not with eye - service - Serving them better when under their eyethan at other times. But doing the will of God from the heart - Doing whatever you do, as the will of God, and with your might.
6:7 Unto the Lord, and not to men - That is, rather than to men; and by making every action of common life a sacrifice to God; having an eye to him in all things, even as if there were no other master.
6:8 He shall receive the same - That is, a full and adequate recompence for it.
6:9 Do the same things to them - That is, act toward them from the same principle. Forbearing threatening - Behaving with gentleness and humanity, not in a harsh or domineering way.