What does the Kingdom of God look like? I recently read an article concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God that was posted in Christianity for Today  (January 2006). [Full reprint of the article can be found at How the Kingdom Comes ]

For some time we have been seeking to bring to the forefront pertinent thought concerning the coming of the Kingdom in these turbulent and exciting days we live in. I am sure that you, like me can easily identify with the dilemma faced by Michael S. Horton the author as follows:

“It was confusing to grow up singing both “This World Is Not My Home” and “This Is My Father’s World.” Those hymns embody two common and seemingly contradictory Christian responses to culture. One sees this world as a wasteland of godlessness, with which the Christian should have as little as possible to do. The other regards cultural transformation as virtually identical to “kingdom activity.”

Certainly the answer does not lie in any intrinsic opposition of heaven and earth. After all, Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Rather, the answer is to be sought in understanding the particular moment in redemptive history where God has placed us. We are not yet in the Promised Land, where the kingdom of God may be directly identified with earthly kingdoms and cultural pursuits. Yet we are no longer in Egypt. We are pilgrims in between, on the way.

In Babylon, God commanded the exiles to “build houses and settle down,” pursuing the good of their conquering neighbors (Jer. 29). At the same time, he prophesied a new city, an everlasting empire, as the true homeland that would surpass anything Israel had experienced in Canaan.

So both of my childhood hymns tell the truth in their own way: We are pilgrims and strangers in this age, but we “pass through” to the age to come (not some ethereal state of spiritual bliss), which, even now in this present evil age, is dawning.

The challenge is to know what time it is: what the kingdom is, how it comes, and where we should find it right now”. The gospel proclaimed by Jesus was foremost a call to become part of God’s Kingdom, a call to live under God’s rule and reign. “Christianity is more than a matter of having a new understanding. Christianity is an invitation to become part of an alien people who make a difference because they see something that cannot otherwise be seen without Christ.” The unbelievers who first responded top Christianity did not view it as a new philosophy or another national religion. They saw a community of people who lived counter-culture to the world of which they were a part of at that time. The church of the first century was identified not by its theological teachings or its mystical revelations – in the beginning Christianity was a different way of life.

To become a Christian required a second birth (John 3:1-3), which created a totally new way of life (2 Cor 5:17). Christian conversion meant radical change, a redirection of life, characterized by a new allegiance at the center of the personality and by a new direction in social relationships.

When Zaccheus the Tax-collector was converted, he immediately responded by resolving to redistribute his wealth to the poor and those whom he had cheated. Jesus consequently declared when he saw the evidence of the inner change with Zaccheus “Today is salvation come to this house” (Luke 19:9).

In that Graeco-Roman world of vicious immorality, where wealth was worshipped, life was cheap, and purity and chastity were vanishing virtues, came a new moral influence. The extraordinary life of the Christians was a blazing torch of attractive moral witness that appealed to the tired world of its day.

Perhaps the most striking quality of the early followers of Jesus was their “agape” love, especially towards the most neglected of that day – the orphans, the aged, the sick, the prisoners, the slaves, and the abandoned. Tertullian once defended the Christian Faith from false accusations when he wrote in his “Apology” – “as a people we are one in mind and soul, and we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us, but our wives!”

In the beginning, the Christian faith was profoundly ethical. The earliest community of believers became known for their love for God, their love for their neighbor, just as Jesus had taught them (Matt 22:37-39), but sadly this truth was soon to be corrupted as the worship of the world and its systems became paramount to a persecuted church.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote in his journal “I want a truth for which I can live and die.” He found that truth in Christ and the Word of God concerning God’s Kingdom being established in the hearts of men and women here on earth.

Have you found the truth worth living and dying for? We have free studies for those who are interested in pursuing the subject of the challenge of the two kingdoms and how to live a new way of living. Simply write and request a set be sent to you via email file attachment.

God bless, and have a great day loving Jesus, and of course those in your most intimate sphere of life,

Kevin Dyson