Matthew 5-7 is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The major theme is the character portrayed of those in God’s kingdom. Christ said this in Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteous-ness exceeds the righteous-ness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisees had a legalistic, external righteousness, but the righteousness Christ described was primarily of the heart. This is the character, the attitudes of the Christian, expressed in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5: 3-10. Today we begin with the attitude of being “poor in spirit.”
