Message Seven

The Highest Standard of Morality

Scripture Reading: Matt. 5:16-48

1. The expression of the kingdom is with the human virtues in the highest standard of morality—the standard of life that God requires—Matt. 5:16, 48:
   1. In particular, the expression of the kingdom is with the virtues of meekness, righteousness, mercy, purity, and peacefulness—vv. 5-10, 20.
   2. The highest standard of morality is the living of One— the Lord Jesus Christ—whose life is a composition of the divine essence with all the divine attributes and the human essence with all the human virtues—1:18, 20; Luke 1:35:
      1. The makeup of Christ’s being, His constitution, is a composition of the divine nature with the divine attributes and the human nature with the human virtues.
      2. In Christ the divine attributes fill, strengthen, and sanctify the human virtues for the purpose of expressing God in the human virtues.
      3. Christ’s human living was the living of a man who lived God to express the divine attributes in the human virtues.
      4. Christ is now seeking to live in us the kind of life He lived on earth—a life that is a composition of the divine attributes and the human virtues—John 14:19b; Gal. 2:20; 4:19.
   3. God’s intention in His New Testament economy is that all the believers become a reproduction of Christ, living a life in which the attributes of God are expressed in the virtues of man—Phil. 1:19-21a.
   4. Eventually, through our growth in life we will be the same as God is in life and nature and live a life with the highest standard of morality for the expression of the kingdom in the divine attributes and human virtues—Matt. 5:48.
2. If we intend to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, we need to practice the highest standard of morality as revealed by the Lord Jesus in 5:17-48:
   1. The highest standard of morality involves keeping the principles of the law—vv. 17-20:
      1. Christ’s fulfilling the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross brought in the resurrection life to complement the law—vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44.
      2. As children of the Father, we now need to fulfill the new, higher law by the resurrection life, which is the eternal life of the Father—vv. 9, 45:
         1. This highest life, the life on the highest plane, within us can fulfill the requirements of the highest law.
         2. In this way we keep the principles of the law to have the highest standard of morality for the expression of the kingdom—v. 16; 13:43a.
   2. In order to have the highest standard of morality, we need to overcome our anger and lust—5:21-32:
      1. The new law of the kingdom deals with anger, the motive of murder—vv. 21-22:
         1. We all are subject to dispositional anger, the anger hidden in our disposition—Jonah 4:1, 4, 9.
         2. The root of anger is the self; in order to deal with anger, we must deal with the self—Matt. 16:24.
      2. The new law of the kingdom recovers marriage back to what God designed in the beginning— 5:27-32; 19:4-6.
      3. Because of the anger and lust within us, we need to remain in constant fellowship with the Lord, receiving the divine dispensing and experiencing and enjoying the divine life—1 John 1:3; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
   3. The requirements of the highest standard of morality can be met only by the Father’s life, not by our natural life—Matt. 5:48:
      1. The kingdom of the heavens is the highest demand, and the life of the Father is the highest supply to meet this demand.
      2. As children of God, we have a heavenly requirement within us demanding that we live on a high level; this level can be reached only by the supply of the divine life—vv. 9, 45.
      3. The requirements of verses 17-48 reveal how much the Father’s life can do for us, the Father’s children, having the Father’s life and nature—1 John 3:1:
         1. These requirements are actually an expression of the divine life, which is within the regenerated kingdom people—John 3:3, 5-6, 15-16.
         2. These requirements open up the inner being of the regenerated kingdom people, showing them that they are able to attain to such a high level and to have such a high living—Phil. 2:15-16a.
3. For the believers to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect is to be perfect in His love—Matt. 5:48; 1 John 4:8, 16; Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14:
   1. We must become perfect as our Father is perfect by loving the evil ones and the good ones without discrimination, loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors—Matt. 5:43-47.
   2. We have been born of God to be God’s species, God’s kind, and God is love—John 1:12-13; 1 John 4:8, 16:
      1. As children of God, we should be the same as God in our love for others—1 John 3:1; Matt. 5:44-45.
      2. As God’s species, we should not only love others; we should be love because God is love—1 John 4:8.
   3. Only one kind of love is genuine, and that is the love which comes out of God’s dispensing—Rom. 8:39, 35; 15:30; 5:5:
      1. When love as the nature of God’s essence is dispensed into us, we become love in the sense of being constituted with God, who is love—1 John 4:16.
      2. The more we receive the divine dispensing, the more we react to others in genuine love, which is God Himself—Luke 6:27-35.
   4. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:31b—13:13; 8:1b; Eph. 4:16.