Can This Be True? Luke 6:20-23

Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated, the excluded, the rejected, the despised, and the slandered.  Can this be true?  Is this a contextual truth or an absolute truth?  If it is true only in context, what context makes this true?  Can it be true for me?

These questions are part of the postmodern denial of absolute truth.

To examine these questions, the issue of context must be first addressed.  The context of the Scripture itself is the first context that applies.  According to the Scripture, these statements are true only for the disciples of Jesus Christ.  Apart from being a disciple of Jesus Christ, these promises do not apply!

We must, however, make the extension of this Scripture to our present day and condition.  To make that extension, let’s examine the “extra-biblical” context which would assert that these words of Jesus Christ are not universally true even in the context of Scripture, or that though they may have been true when Jesus spoke them, they are not reliable in a contemporary church or world.  This is the issue of contextual truth.

The problem resolves to one of FAITH not philosophy or even theology.  The object of faith is a Person, and that Person is the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.  The question of truth is inextricable from the reality of true faith.

So then, we must define faith.  I believe that many of the words that we use in “church” have lost the specificity of their meaning, and faith is foremost of those words.  Let me first define faith in the broader, universal application.

Faith is a body of tenets about life and living that being held and believed govern one’s attitudes and actions.

From that definition which applies to everyone, let me modify the definition to apply specifically to Christians.

Faith is the body of doctrine contained in the Bible that being held and obeyed governs one’s attitudes and actions.

For the Christian, faith is both a body of doctrine from the Bible and it is obedience to that doctrine that is consistently visible in behavior.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

This declaration is the point at which all Christian faith stands or falls.  If one believes this statement of Jesus absolutely, his behavior will be characterized by deliberate obedience to all that the Bible says.  If one does not believe that this statement is true, nothing else that is Christian can be effective in his life, and he is excluded from the context in which the Beatitudes of Luke 6:20-23 apply.

coram deo