when you look @ the story from the beginning.. Jesus is talking to a rich young ruler..

this boy wanted to know how he could inherit the kingdom of heaven..

Matt 5:5-12 [What Robert Schuyler calls.. the Be Happy Attitudes]..

Blessed are the poor in Spirit.. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.. that’s where i suggest we begin..

what did Jesus mean by being poor is Spirit??

In Luke 18:26.. these who heard these words, “It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven”.. they asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?”

the answer to this Qn is found in the book of 1 Pet. 1:18, which says, “If it hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?”

Two things.. the ungodly and the sinner..

both are two categories of those who Jesus called , “the rich man”.. two parables of Jesus on Money stand out:

1: Parable of the Rich Wicked Servant (ungodly)

2: Parable of the Rich Fool (sinner)

Yours Stands Out to coz the rich man was in violation of the commandment that joins the last
7 Commandments> Love your neighbour as you love yourself..

notice all the commands Jesus mentioned to him touched on the issue of his neighbour..

1 Do not commit adultery
2 Do not murder
3 Do not give false testimony
4 Honour your father and mother
5 Sell your things to the poor

all these 5 commands the rich young ruler was in violation of.. tho he said he followed all since he was a boy.. still when we break one command.. we break all.. the command to love..

on the other hand.. by following these 5 basic principles.. those that show us how to love our neighbour.. then Jesus calls us, “Poor in Spirit.. worthy of inheriting the kingdom of heaven”

lets check out some verses from Scripture that support loving our neighbour as God’s equivalent to Spiritual Poverty: BBE

1: Lev 19:13

Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his; do not keep back a servant’s payment from him all night till the morning..

2: Deut 24:14-15

Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land. Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you..

3: Deut 25:4

Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it..

4: Jer 22:13-17

A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work; Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it roofed with cedar and painted with bright red. Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him? He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord. But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts..

5: Hag 1:6

Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food, but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes..

6: Mal 3:5

And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies..

so in closing.. we see the things that violate the command to love your neighbour.. the very thing the rich young ruler was accused of.. can be summed up the the text in Mal 3:5

1: keeping back from the servant his payment

2: being hard on the widow

3: oppressing the child without a father

4: being unfair to the man from a strange country
by stifling his rights

5: having no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.