The Beatitudes and the First Four Principles

3 Nephi 12:1-2 is an important introduction to the Beatitudes that we have in Matthew 5 and helps to give context for the “Blessed” statements.  These first two verses are all about the first four principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  In verse 1 the Savior commends the apostles He has chosen to us and affirms that they have “power that they may baptize you with water.”  To those who are baptized with water Christ will then baptize “with fire and with the Holy Ghost,” and they are blessed because they “believe in [Christ]”. 

Verse two then speaks again about these principles and we get all four principles in one sentence: “Blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins.”  Christ says those who believe, are in the depths of humility (i.e. repent), are baptized, and are visited by the Holy Ghost will receive a remission of their sins.  The more common verses of the Beatitudes then begin, but understanding that Christ is speaking about the principles of faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost help us to understand them better.  The “poor in spirit who come unto me” are those who have faith in Christ.  Those “that mourn” are those who repent and sorrow for their sins.  The “meek” or humble are those who are baptized—in fact the very first requirement of baptism given by the Lord in our dispensation is to “humble [ourselves] before God” (D&C 20:37).  Those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” and “filled with the Holy Ghost” as they receive the actual ordinance of the gift of the Holy Ghost.  The Beatitudes following these four are then I think a description of the progression we are to make after we have received baptism.  We “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ” and seek to become merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers; in other words, we are working to develop Christ-like attributes.  Ultimately this often leads to becoming “persecuted for [His] name’s sake” such that the faithful follower of the Savior is reviled and has all manner of evil spoken against them.  So seen in the context of the basic four principles of the gospel, I think the Beatitudes can be understood as a progression for our own lives and not as an unordered list of independent attributes that we might develop.  The Savior laid out the steps of a pattern for us to follow as we seek to become “perfect” as He and the Father are.