How Should I Live My Life?

Contemplating the Beatitudes
Bruce E. Winston, Ph.D. 
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

I had to face this question 15 years ago during a church service at a time in my life when I was teaching management to MBA students. I realized one morning that while I was an openly Christian professor I kept the Bible for Bible studies but relied on the traditional textbooks for teaching and for my own management of 20 school employees. During the sermon the pastor stated the Great Commandment to love God and love people. I realized that 'love' was an action word and that it spoke of how I should live my life. I was sure I understood how to love God, but how should I love my employees and my peers in the workplace?

Finding Love in all the Right Places

I decided that if I was going to 'love' employees and peers that I needed to start with what I had learned on Sunday. I knew of Eros, Phileo, and Agape—but none of these seemed to really fit the workplace. Not seeing a workable solution from the three forms of love, I went back to the New Testament and looked for something else. I found a form of love—Agapao—that I had not heard of before. It is the most common form in the Greek New Testament and seems to be 'moral' love—doing the right things for the right reason at the right time. I found that Agapao is derived from the same root word as Agape but the modification of the word significantly modifies the meaning. This is similar to the differences between 'waterfall' and 'waterway'—both have the same root but if you do on a waterfall what you do on a waterway you are in for a problem. But now that I had the right concept to help me know how to love my neighbor, how do I do this?

The Beatitudes

At about the same time of my insight into Agapao I heard a presentation on the beatitude 'blessed are the meek' and how we all need to be meek. I could not imagine telling our MBA students to be meek—we had been teaching them to be aggressive in business, assertive, and so on. I realized the dilemma that I was in that if we are to apply scripture to our lives that we have to put all of scripture to all of our lives. I wondered if I didn't fully understand the Beatitudes. What I found in my studies showed me how to love others and how I should live my life.

In this article, I introduce each of the seven Beatitudes and show how each beatitude relates to our lives. Subsequent articles could address each beatitude in more depth with more examples to help each of us understand how we should live. As you contemplate these beatitudes, give yourself some time for the message of the Beatitudes is counter too much of what we are taught. I have struggled with the transformation for 15 years and while I believe I have made changes in my life, I know I have a long way to.

Before we move into each beatitude let's look at the elements common to all. Each beatitude begins with 'blessed are' that we interpret as 'blessed.' The Greek word Markaris, which is similar to the Hebrew Shalom more fully translates as 'peaceful' or 'comfortable'. As I worked at living my life by the Beatitudes, I found 'Markaris ' and realized the benefit of this peace and comfort. My level of stress has reduced over the years. In addition, Markaris carries with it a sense of time-less-ness in that it is not blessed in the past or blessed in the future but blessed all the time without ceasing. However, it is worth noting that it does not carry with a sense of 'instantaneous' peace. Only after you are living as you should, does Markaris occur.

The last thing before we cover the seven Beatitudes is the knowledge that the Beatitudes are in a sequence. As I studied the Beatitudes I noticed that the most common problem I encountered in my consulting with leaders was the first beatitude. The second most common problem was the second beatitude, and so on through the seventh beatitude. Now, let's look at each of the seven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

'Poor in spirit' translates from the Biblical Greek as being humble and teachable. To be poor in spirit means that you understand that relative to all that there is to know in God's universe you don't know very much and that others know more about some things than you do. When you have the attitude of being teachable you are willing to listen. One of our MBA graduates recently told me that a major business idea came from his secretary who did not have a formal education but was able to see an opportunity for the company by using the internet to sell something that beforehand was not sold that way. The graduate told me that if he did not have the attitude of wanting to hear from others he would have dismissed the secretary as not knowing much.

This beatitude is the most common problem I encounter in leaders today. Rather than an attitude of humility and teachable-ness I see an attitude of ego and aloofness. What a shame, especially when you consider the blessing of this beatitude—one gets the kingdom of heaven. Only the humble and teachable can 'see' and 'understand' heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn

'Mourn' translates from the Biblical Greek as a level of intensity of caring. It means to care for others with the intensity as if mourning for the dead. To understand this you have to go back in time to the period when Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount and note that people hired professional mourners so that there could be the appropriate level of intensity in mourning. Caring for others in this fashion means that you make decisions that benefit those working for you and with you. One of our graduates told me once that he was very concerned for single-mothers since his grandmother raised his mother as a single-mom. He specifically designed his company to attract and hire single-moms. He paid above the local wages and arranged for employees to have time off to take care of family issues.

This beatitude is the second most common problem I encounter in leaders today. I hear folk say that employees are our most important asset, but most folk have insufficient tools, income, or workplace-safety. Note that the benefit of this beatitude is one of reciprocity. If you care for others, then the 'others' will care for you. I experienced this blessing as employees and peers began to take care of me as I took care of them.

Blessed are the meek

What we translate as 'meek' in the Biblical Greek refers to 'controlled discipline as a domesticated animal.' Now, this doesn't mean that we have to be horses or oxen but it does mean that we intentionally control our tempers and discipline. As leaders/employers and peers in our workplaces we have the ability to harm people or to bless them. Even when it is necessary to terminate the employment of someone we can do it with controlled discipline and help the employee leave with dignity and grace.

When leaders live by controlled discipline employees and peers are willing to tell the leader what needs to be said and people are willing to take the responsibility for problems since everyone knows that when discipline is necessary it is controlled. I find many leaders who are uncontrolled in the discipline resulting in both employees and peers working in fear rather than joy. This is the basis for the benefit of this beatitude in that only those controlled in discipline can inherit the earth. God won't entrust his creation to the undisciplined.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness

The Biblical Greek translates reasonable close to the English here with the exception that what we call 'righteousness' means that which is 'right', 'just' , or 'holy.' What we translate as 'hunger' and 'thirst' conceptually exists in the Greek as a sense of being insatiable—we just can't get enough. How often in our organizations do we spend time teaching folk what is 'right', 'just' , or 'holy'? If we lived by this how often would be nervous when a news crew shows up to interview us? If we seek to do what is right for the organization then our work has to be seen as valuable.

The reward for this beatitude is one of ease—all we have to do is seek it and we will find it. How easy can it be? We should live our lives seeking to do what is right, just, and holy.

Blessed are the merciful

The Biblical Greek translates into 'mercy' as we think about it today and gives a key concept of how we should live our lives. Human 'justice' can be brutal at times and mercy seasons and dampens justice to make it humane in the process. As I worked to live out this beatitude I found that I tied this to the controlled discipline concept and realized that not every error or mistake needed punishment. People, who really enjoy their work, feel bad when they make a mistake and seek to improve with each opportunity. When I realized that unless the error was a repetitive or intentional mistake there was no reason to punish. Rather, most of time I pointed out the error and what I wanted done different in the future. Usually, the next time I got what I wanted and the employee grew in the process.

The benefit of this beatitude is reciprocal in that as we show to mercy to employees and peers we receive mercy. There is nothing sweeter than mercy when you really need it.

Blessed are the pure in heart

This concept in the Biblical Greek translates as being single-minded or focused in what we are doing. We should live our lives by doing what God has called us to do and only what God has called us to do. There are thousands of things that we can do, but there is only one thing that matters—doing what God calls us to do.

The benefit of this beatitude is that we can see God. Only those that are single-mindedly focused on God will be able to see him.

Blessed are the peacemakers

The notion of peacemaking implies in the Biblical Greek is to create and sustain peace. This is not a condition of the absence of conflict but the active and intentional resolution of peace. This is the last of the seven because it is necessary to have all six beatitudes in place first. We have to be teachable, caring, controlled, righteous, merciful, and focused before we can care enough about others to want to resolve conflict.

And the benefit? To become the inheritors of God, which is the deeper meaning of the Biblical Greek that we translate 'sons of God'.

How Then Should we Live?

We should live our lives in a sense of humility knowing that others will always know about some things than we do. We should live our lives with concern for others while controlling our discipline. We should live our lives seeking what is right and showing mercy to those around us. We should live our lives with single-mindedness toward God and sustaining a climate of peace. As we do this we will be chastised by others due to the success that will come to us and the sense of peace and comfort that pervades what we do. This is fine, and should be expected. It is an indication that we are living our lives as we should.

Fifteen years later I am still in church thinking about what the Bible says about living my life and realizing how much I have learned about loving my employees and peers in the workplace. While my journey of learning is not complete, my workplace is a better place to be because of the Beatitudes. I have found that life is simple when I seek the Bible first as means of knowing how to live my life.

Bruce E. Winston, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Leadership and Dean of Regent University's School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship in Virginia Beach, Virginia teaches, trains, and consults in the areas of leadership and organizational development. In addition, he has 12 years of experience leading organizations in the commercial printing industry as well as 15 years of experience leading academic units at Regent University. Dr. Winston lectures and consuls in the United States as well as Canada, Europe, and South Africa. He also speaks and teaches in other areas including communication, quality improvement and marketing. He may be reached at brucwin@regent.edu.