Explore the view that the teaching of the Beatitudes has very obvious limitations. Justify your answer.

Some Christians would argue that the Decalogue is the basis of ethics, not the Beatitudes. The Decalogue is the basis for pure Christian ethics and is maintained to this day. The term Decalogue refers to the Ten Commandments that are found in Exodus, when they were presented to Moses as a sign of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. Many of our modern state laws are influenced by the moral code of the Old Testament. In the words of Dane, they “in some respects form a charter of fundamental human rights.”

Certain atheist critics of the Bible have picked up on the fact that the Beatitudes seem to encourage inferior attitudes. For example, “blessed are the poor in spirit,” could be taken to mean it’s good to think little or nothing of yourself, and, “blessed are the meek,” could be interpreted as encouraging blind submission to the Bible and God without questioning.

On the other hand, the Beatitudes are vital because they are a fundamental charter of Christian discipleship. The Beatitudes are nine statements from Jesus giving the attributes of His genuine disciples. Those who are truly His will have these attributes growing and deepening within their hearts. The Beatitudes could help us identify and avoid false teachers. Jesus states that few will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that not all that profess to believe in him as Lord will be saved. He warns of false prophets who will come in sheep’s clothing; in this situation the ethics presented in the Beatitudes are vital so a Christian can identify who is a true believer.

Elsewhere in the Bible Paul tells us that no-one is righteous and we all have sinned. Therefore it is impossible for us to keep the Beatitudes, but they give us ideals that can be aspired to. Christians should always have something more to work towards, so they do not become self-righteous. Some might say that the Beatitudes are too idealistic and impossible to live fully. While Jesus is the only one who has perfectly lived these Beatitudes because none of us is yet the image of Jesus we are called to be, we all aspire to image Jesus, to be his disciples, so we aspire to live the Beatitudes

Finally, another understanding of the Beatitudes is that they reveal to the reader what Jesus is like. Jesus is the embodiment of the Beatitudes and moral perfection resides in him alone. The more we live the beatitudes the closer we are to Jesus. Pope Benedict XVI, in a homily in 2006, expressed it this way, “The Beatitudes show us the spiritual features of Jesus and thus express his mystery…To the extent that we accept his proposal and set out to follow him - each one in his own circumstances - we too can participate in his blessedness.”