The second seed that the Lord Jesus sowed concerning the ground of the children of the kingdom for their walk and work is the matter of fruit brought forth of life (Matt. 7:15-20). This seed is developed in Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law." These items are not simply outward conduct; they are the fruit of the Spirit by life. Let us also read Ephesians 5:8-9: "For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth)." The fruit of light is also the fruit of the Spirit.
The third ground of the children of the kingdom is the will of God. This seed is sown by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 7:21 and is developed in Romans 12:2: "And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you may prove by testing what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect." According to the context of Romans 12, it is clear that the will of God is to have the Body life, the church, or we may say the kingdom. The kingdom is the will of God and the church is the kingdom.
The word of Christ as a ground for the children of the kingdom is sown in Matthew 7:24 and developed in Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God." First we need to be filled with the word of Christ; then we need to live out the word of Christ. The very word of Christ becomes the ground for our living, our walk, and our work.
Have you ever noticed that the Lord Jesus ended His discourse on the mount with a building? The Sermon on the Mount ends with a building. The Lord Jesus said that we must build our house on the solid ground which is able to stand testing from three directions. It can stand testing in the form of rains from the heavens, rivers from the earth, and winds from the air. We have mentioned previously that these signify tests from God, from man, and from the enemy, Satan. These three tests are tests upon the building. What we are, what we do, and our work for the Lord are related to the building. Eventually, the whole Bible ends with a building, New Jerusalem. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 contain this seed. Then the Epistles and Revelation have the growth and the harvest of the seed of the building.
In Matthew 7 the building is mentioned only briefly, but in the Epistles there is much development. First Corinthians 3:12-14 says, "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward." This is a further development of the building from Matthew 7.