"Blessed Are the Meek" by Lloyd Jones
When we realize truly what we have to be, and what we have to do, we become inevitably 'poor in spirit'. That in turn leads to that second state in which, realizing our own sinfulness and our own true nature, realizing that we are so helpless because of the indwelling of sin within us, and seeing the sin even in our best actions, thoughts, and desires, we mourn and we cry out with the great apostle, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But here I say is something which is still more searching -- 'Blessed are the meek'.Now why is this? Because here we are reaching a point at which we begin to be concerned about other people. Let me put it like this. I can see my own utter nothingness and helplessness face-to-face with the demands of the gospel and the law of God. I am aware, when I am honest with myself, of the sin and evil that are within me and that drag me down. And I am ready to face both these things. But how much more difficult it is to allow other people to say things like this about me! I instinctively resent it. We all...prefer to condemn ourselves than to allow somebody else to condemn us. I say to myself that I am a sinner, but instinctively I do not like anybody else to say I am a sinner.
D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
p. 54
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
p. 54
