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 When
Jesus was asked when the kingdom of God should come, he
answered, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation...
behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Lu. 17:20-21) I
fear many think of the kingdom as something into which
individuals are put, instead of something put into
individuals — a change in the life and character of
individuals, as they determine to know more of Christ and follow
Him more closely.
There
was a time, the first Pentecost following Christ’s
resurrection, when the kingdom came with power (Mk. 9:1, Acts
1:8). But one may correctly assign the time of the coming (when
Christ’s reign became operative), and fail to grasp what came.
Christ’s kingdom is not a “place,” and we are not citizens
because we occupy that place. One is not a millionaire because
he is named in a list of millionaires; he is so listed because
of his possessions. We are accounted as citizens in Christ’s
kingdom when our will is subject to His will, and He reigns in
our life.
Jesus
told a certain scribe, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of
God.” He was not
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referring to time, but to the nature
of the kingdom, seeing the scribe understood
truth (Mk. 12:34).
Things
we have (our buildings, our numbers, etc.) do not
determine citizenship; even what we have done (our “programs”
of welfare and evangelism) are subject to various
interpretations. But God looks at what we are. In the
final analysis, He wants us to BE something — and when we are
what we should be, we will do rightly.
Many
cults of our day have altered the scriptural kingdom of God so
drastically (in their preaching) that they think of it as an
earthly paradise where fleshly appetites are gratified. Try to
teach their “witnesses” the true nature of the kingdom, and
you will find most of them so conditioned by materialistic
concepts as to be completely blinded to truth. The “god of
this world hath blinded the mind of them...” (2 Cor. 4:3-f.)
Seeking
first the kingdom (Matt. 7:33), means faithful service to God is
the most important goal of your life.
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