A while ago Toni Ball gave me a book called The Beatitudes for Today by John Blanchard. I read the book and found it to be an extremely good commentary on the Beatitudes. Since I am currently preaching a series on that section of the Bible I just read it a second time. In fact, I could not put my hands on another book that so thoroughly covered this important section of the Sermon on the Mount. This is an excellent commentary on a very important section of the Bible for the anabaptist community of churches (see my post here for my thoughts on why this is true).

This book provides a full length in depth study of the Beatitudes taking the approach of first explaining the context then and their meaning for us today from a reformed theological perspective. It is very clear and fluent and practical in its emphasis. I really enjoy commentaries that try to bridge the gap between the ancient world and the modern world. I admire scholars who understand the historical and grammatical significance of a passage but I have a greater appreciation for those can bring the meaning into our modern context.

The Beatitudes are widely recognized as forming a pivotal point in the life and teaching of Jesus. In this wonderful book, Blanchard clearly shows why their message is so relevant to many areas of contemporary Christian living. If you are hoping to get more out of series of sermon on the Beatitudes this book would be an excellent resource.  I have donated this book to the church library (call no. 226.93) so feel free to sign it out.

 

Author John Blanchard is an internationally known author, teacher, apologist and conference speaker. Some fifteen million of his publications are in print in over forty languages and his best-sellers include “Right with God”, “Ultimate Questions”, “Does God Believe in Atheists?”, “Truth for Life”, “Has Science got rid of God?” and “Where is God When Things go Wrong?”