The Virtues of Those in the Kingdom of God
“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5: 1-12).
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:21-23).
Nicodemus along with the scribes and other Pharisees believed they had the “righteous” characteristics and good works to get into the kingdom of God. However, their attitudes and teachings were the exact opposite of what Jesus was teaching.
During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shared the virtues and characteristics of those people who enters God’s kingdom. The first four are spiritual brokenness, mourning over sin, meek, hungering, and thirsting for righteousness. The following four characteristics are what they manifest: mercy, pure in heart, peacemaker, and persecution.
If a person is not broken, he will not mourn. He will not be meek. He will not hunger and thirst for righteousness. He will not show mercy. He will not be pure in heart. He will not be a peacemaker, and he will not be persecuted for his faith.
These qualities and characteristics are distinct but also a progression in a Christian’s life. These attributes must be lived daily. If the world is not persecuting believers for their faith, they may not be peacemakers, pure in heart, or merciful.
When a person experiences brokenness, he or she is merciful to others. And where a person is mourning over sin, he or she will have a pure heart, washed with the tears of regret. And when a person is meek, he or she will be a peacemaker. And when a person is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, he or she will be persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Poor in Spirit … Broken
In Mark 5:3, Jesus began His sermon by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (Psalm 147:3-5).
Broken-heartedness or spiritual poverty is the first characteristic of those saved and in Jesus Christ’s kingdom. A person must be broken over his or her sins. Brokenness leads to confession of sins. This is the first step to forgiveness and healing. A person must realize that he or she is spiritually bankrupt and impoverished. He or she must rely entirely on God.
Living in the kingdom requires a constant and continual admission that strength comes from weakness. Jesus calls men and women to come to him broken and impoverished in spirit so that He can live through them.
A broken spirit cries out for mercy
Christ allows men and women to go through difficult trials and tribulations by breaking a person over life’s circumstances and obstacles to get rid of pride and self-reliance. When a person is desperate, he or she will seek Him. So, Jesus is saying, “Blessed are the beggars in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt and impoverished. In a broken state, a man and a woman will cry out to God for mercy.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to people who know they cannot earn their way into God’s presence. They are bankrupt spiritually. Then, they mourn over their sinfulness.
Mourning over sin
Jesus continues His sermon with His second point, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
The desperate try to touch Jesus. “Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.’ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him and declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace’” (Luke 8:46-48).
Once a person is broken spiritually, then he or she will experience godly sorrow and mourn over sin. Those who express inconsolable grief over their sin shall be comforted. The word “mourn” means to show the kind of sadness that one experiences at the death of a mother, father, child, or spouse.
The Holy Spirit moves people to repent, weep, and mourn over their sins (2 Corinthians 7:10). There is a kind of weeping that breaks pride and prepares the way for the coming of the Spirit of God into a person’s life. Mourning over sin is the weeping of true repentance. When a person’s heart breaks to God in repentance, he or she experiences the peace of God and forgiveness.
As a person’s mourning and cries rise to God’s throne, His comfort descends from heaven. God is the God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians. 1:3-7 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.”
Jesus was the first comforter. He said, “When I go away, I’ll send another comforter” (John 14:16). The second comforter is the Holy Spirit.
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world’” (John 9:1-5).
The Humble and Meek shall inherit the earth
Once a person is broken over sin, he or she mourns over it. Then, he or she becomes meek or humble before the Lord. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Meekness is a right view of oneself. A man or woman can never be meek unless he or she is poor in spirit and mournful. There must be an absence of pride. To be meek is to be humble, gentle, and patient. It is a quiet strength of faith. Faith is throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God.
Humility is necessary for those who enter His kingdom. A meek person is broken over sin and seeks God. The person’s humility is born out of the mourning that comes from seeing his or her sinfulness. Broken in Spirit focuses on my sinfulness. Meekness focuses on God’s holiness.
Hunger and thirst for righteousness
Another characteristic of those in God’s kingdom is that a person hunger and thirsts after righteousness. When a person is broken over sin, mourns, and becomes meek before God, then he or she hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are they who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Those who are in the kingdom of heaven, hunger and thirst for righteousness. A person needs righteousness like he or she needs food and water. Our physical life depends on food and water. Our spiritual life depends on righteousness. God created the heart of every person in the world to hunger for Him. However, men and women try to satisfy the desire for God with all the false things.
Jesus offered Himself as that bread of righteousness. He knew people were hungry. He also provided Himself as living water. In Jeremiah 2:13, he warned, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed out broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
God has made man with a thirst and a hunger for Him, but man refuses the well of living water and makes himself broken cisterns that can’t even hold water. In Luke 1:53, the Bible says, “He hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich He sent away empty.”
Someone who hungers and thirsts after righteousness seeks the Word of God and salvation. It is a desire to be free from self and sin. It is a desire to be free from sin’s power, presence, and penalty.
God’s righteousness is spiritual food. When a person seeks God’s righteousness, He grants it. He fills him or her. In Psalm 107:9, David wrote, “He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
Psalm 34:10 says, “But they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” In John 6:35, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Eat this bread; you will never hunger again.”
The merciful shall obtain mercy
The prodigal son returns to his father (Luke 15:11-32).
In Matthew 5:7, the Bible says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Jesus Christ came into the world and was the most compassionate human being who ever lived. He is the high priest who intercedes for His followers, and it is from Him that mercy comes.
After a person hungers and thirsts after righteousness, he or she is then satisfied by God. Then, the person becomes compassionate and forgiving of others. Those in His kingdom are merciful.
What is mercy? It is sharing the gospel with the lost. It is when a person sees a man or woman without food and gives food. It forgives others. When a person is walking with God, Jesus’ mercy shows through him or her. God is rich in mercy.
The pure in heart will see God
Jesus continued the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:8. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Jesus said the only ones who will see God are pure in heart. On the inside, the Holy Spirit gives believers a new heart, a pure heart. How can a sinner be transformed and become pure on the inside? Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be “born from above.” A person receives God’s righteousness and is cleansed on the inside by the washing of regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven has always belonged to the pure hearts. God requires holiness.
The Pharisees were always washing their hands and cleaning their pots and their pans. And they were working continually on the outside and ignoring the inside.
They were going through their ritualistic prayers, but they ignored love, justice, and truth. They substituted the traditions of men for the commandments of God. Jesus said this is not all about what you do on the outside; it is about a pure heart, the source of life.
The heart is a symbol of our inner person. As we think in our hearts, so are we. God through the act of salvation gives a new heart, a pure heart. God’s mercy cleanses the soul from sin’s filth and impurity (1 John 1:9).
In Psalm 51:10, David prayed to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Purity is essential to the nature of God and to be in His presence. This purity imputes righteousness where God ascribes to us the righteousness of Christ. Paul in Philippians 3:9 said, “I don’t have a righteousness of my own, but that which is of God given to me through faith in Christ.”
Peacemakers are called sons of God
“Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it’” (Luke 18: 15-17).
Jesus continued His sermon by sharing another virtue of a believer; “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Once a believer becomes pure in heart, he or she will share the gospel that may one day bring peace to an unbeliever’s soul. Those who share the gospel are peacemakers, though the world hates them.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they disrupted God’s peace with them and for all humanity. At the cross, peace became a reality again as Jesus died for men’s and women’s sins. He became our peace.
Since the Lord Jesus Christ provided peace, there can be peace in the hearts of men and women who come to know Him. God has designated His believers as peacemakers. He calls them the sons of God. When Jesus comes again on earth, He will reign as the “Prince of Peace.” He will establish a kingdom of peace for eternity.
Today, you can only have peace by surrendering your life to the prince of peace (Colossians 1:20). There is no peace in the world today, because of the disobedience of men and women and the adversary of Satan to God. Many men, women, the fallen angels, and Satan are at war with God. There is also a spiritual war against believers as Satan tries to destroy a Christian’s life and witness to embarrass Christ.
Peace will only occur when the Word of God and truth flourish. It is when two parties can embrace each other. Where there is peace, there is righteousness and holiness.
In Matthew 10:34, Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword.” Jesus did not come to bring peace at any price. He knew there had to be strife before there could be peace. The Gospel convicts and brings contention and strife. Jesus Christ resolves the conflict by faith in Him. Then, there is peace. The only genuine peace comes when a person responds to the truth.
The menace to peace is a sin. In Jeremiah 17:9, it says, “The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.” A wicked heart can never produce peace.
“The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace” (James 3:18). Peacemakers are always trying to bring a person to Christ. Only when a person deals with his or her sin can true peace ever transpire.
Jesus is the greatest peacemaker of all. Did He avoid conflict with the Pharisees and religious leaders? No, he confronted their sins, and He was nailed to a cross and executed for doing so. Though the Jews and Romans put Him to death, His mission was to come to earth, die on the cross and be raised from the dead to bring God’s peace to all men and women.
The Bible is clear, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). The sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of Man without sin and blemish, was the only way for the elect to be saved from eternal punishment and to have peace with God.
Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. In Isaiah 9:6, the prophet Isaiah said, “He shall be called the Prince of Peace.” He is the Prince of Peace, and yet everywhere He went, He created conflict when he preached the gospel of peace.
Ephesians 2:14 says, “For He is our peace.” Colossians 1:20 says that Jesus Christ has made peace through the blood of His cross. He reconciled all things to Himself. So, God is the source of peace, and Jesus is the manifestation of peace. The Holy Spirit is the agency of peace.
A peacemaker shares the gospel of peace with everyone he or she can. Sons of God are peacemakers even with their enemies. The maker of peace is God, while the messengers of peace are His followers – his adopted sons and daughters. God makes His believers adoptive sons through the Spirit and joint heirs (Romans 8:16-17).
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:10).
Persecuted for the sake of righteousness
Jesus promises every peacemaker who shares the gospel of peace will be persecuted. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
A person who is a peacemaker in God’s kingdom will be persecuted for his or her belief and faith in Jesus Christ.
A peacemaker has a life of conflict with the world. John 15:18-25 says, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’”
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:11-17)
World at war with God
Those who are in the kingdom of God have a new nature in Christ. The Holy Spirit’s transforming work marks Christians as targets in the world at war with God. All the blessings or virtues of the beatitudes that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount are intolerable to an evil world.
The unbelievers cannot stand a person who is poor in spirit, because they value pride, strength, and control. The unsaved hate those who mourn over sin because they justify their sins and make excuses for them or blame others.
The lost hate those who are meek because they believe it is a weakness to be humble. The lost honor and value the outspoken and prideful. The unregenerate hate those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they love sin and remain in the darkness rather than moving to the light.
The eternally damned hate those who are merciful. The damned are unforgiving and selfish. They want to punish their enemies. They will not apologize and forgive.
The dead in spirit hate those who have a pure heart. The dead in spirit make fun of those who confront sin and share God’s truth.
The sinner hates the peacemaker who brings others to the feet of the Prince of Peace. In many countries, the peacemakers are put in prison and killed for sharing the Christian faith with others.
The lost do not want to be persecuted by this world. The misled are the persecutors of Satan. They would rather live for today; for tomorrow, they will die. They do not believe in God or heaven or hell. They hate God.
The lost world does not value Jesus’ blessings and virtues in the Sermon on the Mount. The lost world will continue to persecute and bring suffering to Christ’s elect.
Before Jesus’ death, he told his disciples about their life ahead, “Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. However, woe to you who are rich, for you, are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way” (Luke 6:22-26).
Hardship and opposition characterize a righteous life. Persecution is a confirmation that a person who is living a confronting life in an ungodly world belongs to Christ.
(E-Book: Born from Above; Introduction; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Epilogue)