“Bless” - Blessing may mean either material or spiritual blessing.
1) Spiritual blessings, of course, are far more important than material (see Matt 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-26).
2) Material blessings are temporary, spiritual blessings are related to eternity (see Eph 1:3; Matt 6:19-21).
“Bless” - Faith in God and obedience to Him bring great blessing, not only to the individual who practices them but to many others.
"Blessed” - This is a translation of a Greek word meaning happy. However it does not mean here a feeling of happiness in the heart, but a happy state, a blessed condition, one that will mean at last eternal joy in God’s presence.
The word when used in the New Testament of people speaks of spiritual blessing, the blessing that comes to those who are in God’s kingdom and ruled by God. They have a share in God’s happy condition.
This does not mean that the blessed in God’s kingdom on earth will never know sorrow or will always experience the emotion of happiness. The fullness of their joy awaits the future. But they have a foretaste of it now, for God shares His joy with His people (John 15:11; 17:13; Rom 14:17; 15:13).
True blessedness comes only when we are linked with the true God and His blessedness. The whole Bible was given that men might know of this and come to share it.
Observe that Abraham not only received God’s blessing, he became a blessing to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment