Answer:
General characteristics
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* Everlasting (Hebrews 1:8) Unshakeable (Hebrews 12:28)
* Superior to Satan's kingdom (Mark 16:17, Philippians 2:9-11)
* Greatness in the kingdom measured by:
1. Obedience to God (Matthew 5:19)
2. Servanthood (Matthew 20:25-28, Matthew 23:11, Mark 10:45) like Jesus.
3. Humility (Matthew 18:3-4)
So what should this righteousness look like? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus paints for us a picture of the importance of righteousness and what it should look like in the kingdom of God. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10). The heavenly kingdom belongs to the righteous. Then He goes on to say "You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14). Jesus is saying here that we should let our purity and righteousness affect, influence, and impact this world. This will produce either persecution, "… when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers" (Matthew 5:11); or fruit, "… everyone will praise your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:16). In verse 17 Jesus says that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, which means to fulfill all righteousness. And then in verse 20 He declares, "… unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). When Jesus made that comment I believe everyone's jaws dropped open as they wondered "How can I possibly live a life superior to them?" But Jesus was talking about a whole different type of righteousness. Not a righteousness put on from the outside, but a righteousness that is lived out from the inside. As we have seen, Christ's victory on the Cross has made it so that we now stand in His righteousness, for we have become the righteousness of God.
Following this in Matthew 5:21-7:12 Jesus gives us a revelation of what kingdom righteousness looks like. I would encourage you to study that, but here is a summary:
• The righteous reconcile and speak life.
• The righteous think upon what is good and abstain from sinful or enticing thoughts.
• The righteous keep their covenants.
• The righteous tell the truth and keep their word.
• The righteous give to and serve others.
• The righteous display the perfect love of God by blessing, loving, and praying for others - even those who are hateful.
• The righteous do good and give without hypocrisy.
• The righteous pray without hypocrisy.
• The righteous forgive others.
• The righteous fast unto God and not unto man.
• The righteous give liberally to God, and keep God, not money, as their focus.
• The righteous have faith in their faithful God and do not worry.
• The righteous rightly honor spiritual things and are not judgmental.
• The righteous continually press further into the kingdom by asking, seeking, and knocking.
• The righteous treat others as they would want to be treated.
This, and nothing less, is the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us!
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3)
This heart characteristic is the keystone of all the other qualities. It deals with the process of emptying us of our old sinful nature so we can be filled with the power of God's new nature. The extent to which we become poor in spirit affects how successfully we develop the subsequent traits, and each characteristic builds on the previous ones.
To be poor in spirit is to be delivered from all that which promotes self. It is to know that within the flesh we are nothing, we have nothing, and we must look to God in utter dependence upon His grace and mercy. Within the flesh we are empty and hopeless, but He is the all-sufficient one.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4)
This characteristic develops in us the honesty to see sin in ourselves and in the world as it really is. Christians are to be unlike the people of the world who try to shun mourning. Think of all the energy and money spent by the world system to blind people from this spiritual quality. As mourning becomes a part of our being, it causes us to see not only what sin does to people, but how it must stab God in the heart. I have heard it said that just the sin of using God's name in vain takes place more than one billion times every day in our country.
Mourning applies not only to our own sins, but also to the sins of others and the state of society and the world. When this characteristic is developed, we will mourn over the immorality, the suffering and the evil deeds of mankind. True happiness and joy can only come after mourning. That is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).
Meekness is often regarded as similar to being poor in spirit; however, it is quite different. Meekness is more difficult and more humbling than the previous two. It is also more searching, because it takes us from within ourselves to our relationship with others. I can evaluate, even condemn, myself, but when others do it, I tend to be resentful. Meekness is measured by how we respond when others put the spotlight on us.
This does not mean that we are to be flabby, lacking in firmness, vigor, weak in personality, always exhibiting a compromising spirit. That is not how Jesus or Paul lived. They knew their mission and set their face as a flint to accomplish it; not in their own strength but through the power of God.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled"(Matthew 5:6)
As we grow spiritually in the Lord, He must do away with our old nature as He develops in us a new one with these Christ-like characteristics. As the first three are formed in us, we are gradually emptied of our old sinful nature. Only then will we desire to be filled with God's righteousness, and the Lord will develop that desire into a hunger and thirst.
Jesus promised that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled. This comes through the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. If one is emptied of a self-seeking nature and filled with God's nature, the next three characteristics given by Jesus-merciful, pure in heart and peacemaker-will flow naturally as we come down the mountain to minister for His Kingdom rather than for selfish reasons.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matthew 5:7)
As these characteristics on the other side of the mountain become a natural part of our being, we start to express the true character of God. Mercy is a sense of pity plus an effort to relieve suffering. It is not pity alone; it includes action. Consider the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Others may have pitied the injured man, but they did nothing. They were not demonstrating mercy. Mercy allowed Jesus to see the miserable consequences of sin. It is also what drove Him to relieve the suffering sin causes both in this life and the life after death.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8)
PURE IN HEART
Christian doctrine emphasizes the heart! Jesus baffled the scholars of His day because He bypassed the intellectual mechanics of the Scriptures and zeroed in on their effect on the heart. The Pharisees were interested in the outside more than the inside. They made the way of life and righteousness a mere matter of conduct and ethics.
"Heart" refers to the core of our being. It includes our mind, will and emotions. It is also the seat of all our problems. Jesus put it this way: "For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thought, sexual immorality, theft, murder, and adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean'" (Mark 7:20-23).
The more pure our heart is, the more it will merge with God's will. Even when our best effort fails, the willing spirit of a pure heart means success to God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9)
PEACEMAKERS
The history of mankind reflects that whatever ambitions a person may have, inner peace is one of the top priorities he strives to poss
The blessing promised to a peacemaker is a great tribute. Jesus said that "they will be called sons of God." You know the saying, "like father, like son"? When the characteristic of peacemaking becomes part of our nature, we will truly be acting like a son of God. This once again demonstrates how different the Kingdom of God is from the kingdom of the world.
Nothing else in Scripture so thoroughly condemns the humanistic way of bringing peace as does the Sermon on the Mount. In the world's kingdom, mankind will always experience international tension, threats of war and discord among people. Self-centeredness, greed and lust will always show themselves. They are an inherent part of man's sinful nature. Therefore, man's way of bringing peace-by political, economic, and social means-does not work. The only way is to go to the heart. That is the theme of all of Jesus' teachings. We must be made new from the inside out.
He shows that those who belong to the kingdom of God will be poor, in that they know they have no power in and of themselves to be what God wants them to be. They will be meek, recognizing their total dependence on God. They will be merciful because they realize how much mercy God has shown them. They will hunger and thirst for God, they will strive for purity, they will be people who long for peace and will themselves be an instrument of peace. These are descriptions, not prescriptions.
8. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE
* Verse 10-12 deals with one of life's greatest perils: Persecution!
* Knowing why we are being persecuted make all the difference, ("For righteousness sake") Because we have taken sides with Jesus Christ. And knowing that we have been transformed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
* And now in partnership with Him.
* We could sum it all up with this great sentence; "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, Explanation: "for great is your reward in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Amen.
That says it all.