What does it mean to be "poor in spirit"....Is everyone poor in spirit or do we have to read some significance into that phrase? Charles G. Finney says to be poor in spirt is to realize our spiritual state but can't it be a stand alone statement without any other action taken?

Jesus said in Matt. 5:3: 3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Is it a stand alone verse or do we have to extrapolate from it like Finney did?

Extrapolate it like Finney did.

It means to be MEEK in spirit, no the meek that definition that is errouneously taught by all others.

Meek in spirit, means to be receptive to the truth, to God, Gods word, and Gods men.

Meek and Humble are similar but not identical.

Moses was a MEEK man, very recxeptive to the point that he ACTED upon the word of God spoken to him.

There are VERY few meek men or women in the world compared to the population and when it comes the to all of Christianity as a whole, there are very very few people who are meek as the bible means meek.

There are alot of people who think they are meek and put on a show along the ideas of what they think are meek actions, but true meekness comes from the heart and has purity of motivation, a meek heart is a believing heart, one that believes God and His word and the words of his mean.

By all means this does not mean that someone does not study the word, but they are not cynical, they are not hard hearted and rebellious to Gods word, they WANT to believe Gods word and do it and whats right according to it.

Meek in spirit is the actual word that should be here, not poor, the meek will be in the kingdom of heaven, because you have to be RECEPTIVE to God and Gods word and Gods men to even get born again.

Meek, means basically receptive in your heart to the point of believingly acting on what you have heard, in this case God and his word.....

Hey Splendour: Good question.

First, Pletho is off base. Look at the verses surrounding the verse you quote, Matthew 5: 3-5.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

It is clearly obvious that if Jesus wanted to say 'meek', he would have said 'meek' as he does 2 breaths later. So, no, it's doesn't mean 'meek.'

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Take off all your clothes, pile them up, and stand on them naked like a little child. This is to be poor in spirit.

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It is not really a stand alone verse. Later in his discourse, Jesus says, "You are the light of the world." Although not treated as such in most Christian theology, this is a "stand alone" verse and is universally applicable to everyone in the world, right now this moment as is, without "doing" anything to achieve. One must only realize it. God is Light, the Light that lighteth every man that comes into the world. (1John 1:5, John 1:9)

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Man, at his core, is 'in spirit'. There, he is in relationship with the One Source Creator Spirit of All Things, or God if you must, the Father as Jesus said. He and the Father were one, and Jesus' mission was to show us the way so that we would be one with the Father, as he was one with the Father.

To understand 'poor in spirit', look at poor in the poor/rich sense of the word. To be poor is to be destitute or lacking in __________ (something). To understand this verse, we must understand what we are. We are a being covered in a persona. We are spirit covered in flesh. Awareness covered by an ego.

Essentially, and so that names don't get in the way: We are A, but we allow A to be covered by a B. And then we live our lives as that B. To become poor in spirit, we must realize that we are really A, and become destitute and lacking in the B.

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So this persona/ego/flesh is a mask that covers the core of us, our being, where the Light shines. Our belief system, our reactionary thoughts, our very minds, almost all the stuff we live by now flows out of this covering, out of the B. The mind of Christ is in the A, in the spirit, and is distinct from our fleshly minds, not interspersed with it. When we stop living from the ego persona, and live from the spirit being core, well, that's like being born again and beginning an entirely new life.

Ponder it and know. Adding it to or comparing it with the belief system in your covering B, will profit you nothing.

Here's a related question, and it answers yours too I think.

http://www.catholicplanet.net/forum/...poor+in+spirit

Thanks Jerok. That's a very tricky phrase "poor in spirit'. Now I think it has a double meaning. The Catholic one and the Finney one.