7 Major Items of the Excellent Virtues which are Filled with the Divine Attributes

In serving the Lord in the spirit in the gospel of His Son, one of the most important items we need to take care of is our humanity.

This week we are getting into the matter of, The Humanity of One who Serves the Lord, to see in the Lord’s light, through His word, and in the ministry of the age what is the humanity that we as serving ones should have.

When we speak of the humanity of one who serves God we don’t mean merely the human essence or what makes us human intrinsically but what is visible, the form and expression of our humanity, the expression we have before men.

Our humanity in serving the Lord involves things such as our character, our qualities, our behavior and conduct; our disposition, personality, and temper are intrinsic, but our humanity is what is seen in us. Our humanity involves our morality and standard of ethics; we would never emphasize being moral and ethical merely in the human realm – our humanity has everything to do with divinity!

Paul and Peter both mentioned such things as what is well spoken of, praise worthy, virtues, etc – we should ponder on these things. Virtue is ethical energy expressed in vigorous action; virtue denotes the energy of life that enables us to carry out all the excellent virtues.

The best definition of humanity is really the divine attributes of God expressed through the human virtues of man. Jesus had the top humanity; in Him the rich divine attributes were expressed through His aromatic virtues in His God-man living.

Christian humanity is the divine nature mingled with the human nature; the divine nature is the source and content of such a humanity, and the human nature is expression and the form. As believers in Christ we are men mingled with God, and in our service to God we should simply allow the divine attributes to be expressed in our human virtues.

7 Major Items of the Excellent Virtues which are Filled with the Divine Attributes

The highest morality is one in which divinity is added to our humanity; this is the divine attributes of God expressed in the created virtues of man. In serving God we need to not only be filled with His life and fellowship with Him all the time, remaining in our spirit and living according to the Spirit, but we also need to have the highest morality in which God comes in to fill our human virtues with His divine attributes.

Our human virtues are empty; they are made in the image of God’s attributes to be filled with them as the reality. The Bible reveals at least seven major items of these excellent virtues which are filled with the divine attributes:

1. We must have extraordinary love (1 Cor. 12:31b; 13:1-8a; Matt. 5:44). Our human love is empty, natural, and one-sided; but in serving God we need to have love for God, love for man, and even love for our enemies. The divine love needs to fill our human love to the point that we have an extraordinary love that doesn’t brag, is not puffed up, seeks others’ good, loves God, loves man, and even loves the enemies.

2. We must have boundless forbearance (Phil. 4:5-7; Luke 23:34a; Matt. 18:21-22). Forbearance is an all-inclusive top virtue, the virtue of all virtues; to forbear is to forgive, and when we forgive others, our heart has to be boundless. Many times when we forgive others we never forget, and we don’t forbear; but the Lord Jesus was the first One to practice forbearance when on the cross He prayed for His enemies, those who murdered Him.

Our forbearance need to be known before men, as we bring our anxieties before the Lord with thanksgiving, and God’s peace will guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.

3. We must have unparalleled faithfulness (1 Cor. 4:2; 7:25b; Psa. 37:3). What is sought in us as God’s stewards, His servants, is faithfulness; we need to be faithful to God, faithful to men, and not betray God or man or the Lord’s servants.

Our faithfulness should be unparalleled, such faithfulness that the Lord Jesus had toward the Father and also toward us; He was faithful to the end, and He is our Faithful High Priest, interceding for us forever.

4. We must have absolute humility (1 Pet. 5:5-6; John 13:3-5; 1 Pet. 3:8; Phil. 2:3; Eph. 4:2). A servant of God should not be proud but humble, and even in humiliation before God and man, considering himself as being nothing but God is everything.

To be humble is to be low, but to have humility is to be willing to be made small, no matter how much others denigrate you, abuse you, or mistreat you. We should be humble minded, doing nothing by way of selfish ambition but considering others more excellent than ourselves.

5. We must have utmost purity (Matt. 5:8; Psa. 73:25; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:22). We need to deal with the Lord and have a clean heart, and we need to go on and have a purified heart and conscience; in serving God we need to have the utmost purity so that we will not seek our own glory or benefit but God’s interest and His glory.

Being pure touches the intention and motive within us, and purity is one of the rarest virtues among Christians. We need to have absolute singleness of heart, desiring God and Him alone, and seeking nothing for our interest or personal gain.

6. We must have supreme holiness and righteousness (1 Pet. 1:15-16; 2 Pet. 2:5, 21; Rom. 14:17; Matt. 5:20; 1 Cor. 1:30). According to the holy One who called us, we should be holy in all our manner of life, being separated and sanctified unto God. Toward God we need to be holy, and toward man we need to be righteous; toward God we need to be fully separated and sanctified, and toward man we need to be altogether faultless.

We need to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy, and we need to enjoy and experience Christ as our righteousness to be righteous with God and with man.

7. We must have brightness and uprightness (John 8:12; Luke 11:34-36; Psa. 36:7-10; 111:1). In serving God we need to be bright and upright; this brightness is different from what the world says it is – it is a life in the divine light, walking in the light and rejecting any darkness, so that God in Christ would shine through us as the light.

We need to be fully upright and forthright, not being narrow-minded or suspicious in any way. With us there should be no darkness at all; we should be totally transparent, bright, genuine, and fully in God as the light.

All the seven items combined give a proper humanity for a servant of the Lord. In conclusion, the Christian humanity is a life lived out through the mingling of the divine attributes and the created human morality. May the Lord preserve us to serve Him all the days of our life, without turning back or deviating. May we all live out the proper humanity of one who serves the Lord. The Lord be merciful to us all. (Witness Lee, The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, pp. 35-37)

Oh Lord Jesus! If we look at all these seven excellent virtues and look at ourselves, we will realize that we are NOT such ones; we don’t have extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, or brightness and uprightness. Rather, we may even find that we are opposite to these things.

However, as servants of the Lord we need to have these things in us, and we need to cooperate with the Lord to have the proper humanity in serving Him so that He may be expressed not only through our words but also through our demeanor, behavior, actions, and attitude.

May we be those who are prayerfully before the Lord concerning our humanity so that the divine attributes would fill and saturate our human virtues, and our living would be of the highest morality as the divine nature is expressed through our human nature!

Lord Jesus, fill our human virtues with Your divine attributes to the point that we express You in all our living, attitude, humanity, and conduct. Bring our humanity up to Your standard by mingling Yourself with us more and more every day. May Your divinity be added to our humanity to produce the highest morality with excellent virtues in us. Oh Lord, may we be those who have extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and brightness and uprightness in our service to You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, ch. 3 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 5 / msg. 5, The Humanity of One who Serves the Lord.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # As Spirit of the life divine, / Thru us abundant fruit He bears; / Expressing God-like attributes, / To others Christ in life He shares. (Hymns #244)
  # Lord, keep my heart always true to You, / Never backsliding, always viewing You, / A heart that is pure that sees only You, / A heart that loves You and treasures only You. (Song on having a pure heart)
  # Let me love Thee, love is mighty, / Swaying realms of deed and thought; / By it I shall walk uprightly, / I shall serve Thee as I ought: / Love will soften every sorrow, / Love will lighten every care, / Love unquestioning will follow, / Love will triumph, love will dare. (Hymns #369)