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Last week we noted that Jesus' true followers were "to be entirely different from others." They were not "to take their cue from people around them, but from him [the Lord Jesus Christ], and so prove to be genuine children of their heavenly Father" (John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 18).
Over these coming weeks we want to see how this applies in the area of Christian leadership. If, as citizens of God's kingdom, we march to the "beat of a different drum," how does this show itself in the area of leadership? One way of exploring this is to take the Christian virtues mentioned in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) and see how they translate into leadership practice.
In the first of the Beatitudes Jesus declares, "Blessed (that is, truly or profoundly happy, to be congratulated because of their enviable position) are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). This is so, he says, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." One indispensable feature of a kingdom citizen (or a true follower of Jesus), then, is poverty of spirit.
But what does this mean? Don Carson helps us dismiss some alternatives when he writes, "It is surely not financial destitution, or material poverty. Nor is it a poverty of spiritual awareness. Still less is it poor-spiritedness, that is, a deficiency of vitality or courage. And certainly, the expression does not denote poverty of the Holy Spirit" (The Sermon on the Mount, p. 19).
If it is not these things, what is it? The expression seems to have developed in the Old Testament and relates to people who, out of personal distress and poverty, turn in their helplessness to God for aid. They were "poor in spirit" in the sense that they knew there was nothing in themselves worth trusting. Their only recourse was to look to God for help. Such an attitude - such a spirit of utter self-distrust - was completely at odds with the arrogant self-reliance of the "wicked".
Carson puts it well when he describes it as "the personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy. It is the conscious confession of unworth before God" (p. 20). Or, to use Stott's words, a person who is poor in spirit is someone who "who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God" (Stott, p. 39).
This attitude of heart is bound to affect the way Christians lead others. For one thing, it will make them genuinely humble. Anyone who has seen their lack of worth and their complete dependence upon God for everything - every personal gift and circumstance, opportunity and advance - will not be self-inflated and self-reliant. There will be no "artificially induced self-hatred," and no "sham or showy humility" (Carson, p. 20), but a genuine gratitude to God for his grace (1 Cor. 15:10).
There will also be an attitude of be selfless service rather than self-seeking. Someone who has realized their utter dependence upon God will know that they don't exist for themselves but for the glory of God and the advance of his kingdom. Yes, they will strive for excellence, and seek to attain the greatest achievements they possibly can. But there will be such a marked absence of self in what they do that they will stand out as radically different to the world's brand of leaders.