We believers in the Lord Jesus who live in the western world live in an increasingly hostile, divisive, and tumultuous society. Thinking most evidently of the recent American presidential race, and all its attendant consequences, many believers are extremely focused on earthly, political, societal, and economic matters. This has manifested itself particularly in at least a couple Christian movements and schools of thought, which have recently been giving great attention and work to promoting Christian values, organizations, and influence through political and economic means. What I’m talking about is such movements as the post-millennialist group, the theonomist camp, and various other Christian groups that have been heavily engaged in political and societal activism, institution-building, and media outlets.

Although some of these activities have served to be very beneficial for both believers and unbelievers, in promoting godliness, Christian ideas, and righteous behavior in governments, institutions, and societies, they’ve also opened the door for a dangerous mindset which seeks to bring an earthly and material type of Christian dominance into western society, heavily through earthly, and unspiritual means. This emphasis on the work for the earthly prosperity and order of our western society poses a threat to our biblical mission of spreading the gospel, and increasing in Christlikeness, through the spiritual means of God’s Word taught, people counseled through Scripture, and people loved according to Christlikeness. Because many believers have become so enamored with the conception of a semi-utopian, Christianly, and outwardly moral society (sometimes spoken of in connection with “Christendom”), there has been less attention given to the spiritual nature and mission of the Lord’s body on earth, which is essential to the spread of His spiritual kingdom on earth, until He comes. In the midst of the political and societal upheaval that has been engaging many believers, there have arisen various factions among the body of Jesus, particularly those who are unhealthily focused on politics, and those who have their whole attention fixed on purely spiritual things, among others. Dividing lines have been drawn, professing believers’ inner commitments and convictions have been revealed, and the body of Christ in the West has sometimes unknowingly aligned itself with non-Christian organizations, methods, and practices. In other words, many believers have become too earthly-minded, and decreased in their attention and devotion to the eternal and spiritual elements of God’s kingdom. This has made some Christian churches and organizations focus less on preaching and teaching God’s Word, and more on promoting social, political, and economic activities and ideologies. If we as believers don’t make sure that we’re focused on the spiritual aspects of our role on earth, then we will be less effective at fulfilling our mission of serving the spiritual needs of the saints and sinners around us, and become more worldly in our thinking and behavior.

In sum, my argument is that God’s kingdom isn’t about this world, with its possessions, institutions, lifestyles, and comforts, but about the next world, and the people who will be living in it. We must turn our attention more to “the things above,” then to “the things that are on earth”. Why? Because we no longer belong to, nor live, in this world, but our true lives are in heaven (Col. 3:1-3)! In this study, I want to show you the contrast between focusing on the things of this current age, and its concerns, and the rightful devotion to promoting that which is spiritual, and will endure in the next age of eternal life – the perfected kingdom God, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3).

The Commission for God’s Kingdom

As a preface to at least a couple Scripture passages that characterize the nature of God’s kingdom, I would like to either remind, or inform, you, about the basic mission that has been given to the Lord’s body on earth, as it’s contained in that so-called Great Commission found at the end of Matthew’s Gospel. In this passage, the apostle Matthew describes the Lord Jesus meeting with His remaining apostles for one of the first times after His resurrection. As is well-known, He then grandly outlines the task that He’s leaving His followers to complete until the end of the age, as He says:

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” (Mt. 28:18-20)

Although many believers overlook it, this commission is based fundamentally on the fact that Jesus is now the ruler of a newly established kingdom. We actually see this all throughout Matthew, which begins by identifying Jesus as the ultimate Son of David, then as the King of the Jews, and climactically as the Teacher of His people, who instructs them to pray for God’s kingdom to come. Thus, it’s only fitting that Matthew ends the Gospel by describing the newly empowered King as decreeing to His subjects to spread His spiritual kingdom across the world.

How can we tell from this passage that Jesus is speaking as a reigning King? Because He bases His commission for His apostles on the fact that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given” to Him. He wouldn’t have said that God had given Him all authority on earth if His kingdom had nothing to do with things on this earth. What Jesus says here is that God has given Him the keys of His kingdom, the rights of rulership, and the control of the universe. Satan is no longer the sole ruler of the world, but has been dealt a decisive blow which has “bound” him like the strong man, and now Jesus’s kingdom has been inaugurated through His resurrection, and is to start having significant sway over this world through His apostles. And the reason that His apostles can undertake the instructions He gives them is because He, as the rightful Ruler of both heaven and earth, has power and rulership over the “nations” of the earth.

Although Jesus’s kingdom will, and does, have sway and influence on this earth, He doesn’t declare that He’s founding a wholly new society, or geo-political institution, which will come to dominate the world, such as Constantine’s Empire sought to do. Rather, the expansion of this kingdom manifests itself directly, and primarily, in the transformation, learning, and life-change of individuals. This is clear from the fact that the Lord’s only direct command in the commission is to “make disciples” – focusing on individuals. To repeat, Jesus declared to His apostles that because He had all power over the universe, His representatives were to then be going (as the Greek can literally be translated), and making disciples from all nations.

Not only does the term “disciples” refer to individuals, but it also refers to individuals who decide to follow their teachers – those who turn them into disciples. And who were these teachers in the beginning? The apostles. Jesus isn’t here establishing a governing institution, or an oligarchy of some sort. Rather, he’s establishing a familial school that is led and taught by men who view themselves, and act, as the slaves of those who follow them – just as Jesus taught them (Mk. 10:43-46). In other words, there is no room in Jesus’s commission for an injunction for political activism, or building some sort of earthly Christian kingdom or nation.

Instead, Jesus commands His disciples to make disciples from, or out of, the nations. As the rest of the New Testament makes clear, His instruction was understood as forming distinct and separate groups of disciples within the non-Christian societies and kingdoms in which they lived. That is, the Christian body began, and always has been, a special and despised group of heavenly citizens among a mostly God-hating and hostile world.

Now, what I’ve said may be construed as implying that Christians should have no impact on society at large, or avoid forming distinctly Christian institutions and organizations. Far from it. What I’ve highlighted is the fact that, at its heart, the mission that Christ’s assembly has the responsibility to carry out, is not to be directly aimed at forming whole societies or governing bodies, but at teaching many individual members of society, who are distinct from the world at large.

I wholeheartedly support believers to work so prayerfully, diligently, and sacrificially, at making disciples from all the nations, that the natural and necessary result is that Christian institutions, organizations, enterprises, businesses, and even governmental bodies are established. But these things can never embody God’s kingdom on earth, since the Lord’s kingdom can never be fully manifested as an exclusively Christian nation that dominates the world. Now, this should not deter us from doing all within our power and ability to convert as many people as possible, and perhaps, by the sovereign grace and good pleasure of Jesus, be used to forming almost exclusively Christian societies. However, we shouldn’t hedge our bets on making Christian nations or dominant societies, since the Lord never promised such a thing to happen. And endeavoring to change our unbelieving societies will tend to make us focus too much on using earthly and even worldly means to outwardly affect our neighbors and authorities, rather than striving to win our neighbors, co-workers, and family members, to the Lord’s saving kingdom through repentance.

All this to say that the kingdom that Jesus gave a prime directive to in the Great Commission, and which He explicitly said to Pilate was “not of this world,” is fundamentally unlike any earthly, temporal, kingdom, society, or nation (Jn. 18:36). It isn’t glorified in social orders, governing bodies, or physical prosperity, but through the transformation of individual hearts and minds, and the flourishing of distinct communities of disciples that stand out against the darkness of the sinful world around them.

God’s Kingdom isn’t in Food or Drink, but In Righteousness

As an elaboration on the idea that God’s kingdom isn’t about earthly, temporal, things, but about spiritual and eternal things, I’d like us to turn our attention to one of the apostle Paul’s most explicit, and practical, descriptions of the kingdom contained in the New Testament. It’s found in his letter to the Romans, where he addresses the quarrels and divisions between the Jew and Gentile believers specifically regarding their views on permissible diets. After explaining that the Romans have no right to condemn each other for their food choices based on what they approve with their consciences, he then reinforces his arguments by characterizing the values of God’s kingdom, in which the Romans live, with reference to the truth that all foods are permissible to eat:

“Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this – not to put an obstacle or a stumbling in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.” – Romans 14:13-19

This passage could very appropriately be applied to western, and especially American, believers, who have become so devoted to political, social, and economic movements or organizations, that they think God’s kingdom consists in creating and promoting Christian societies, or a Christian-like direction for government and social institutions. Many of the theonomists and post-millennialists, and even so-called optimistic amillennialists, have walked into the territory of being easily tempted into thinking little of believers who are not wholeheartedly, and actively, engaged, in political activities, or directly supporting Christian businesses, para-church organizations, or social institutions apart from the body of Jesus itself. Some of them are in danger of figuratively making matters of food and drink (this world) matters of God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.

And if you start to condemn or belittle your brethren for not being focused on explicitly earthly matters of social, economic, and political influence, then you are doing much the same that the strong believers of Rome were doing to their weaker brethren who regarded eating meat sacrificed to idols, or which was strangled, or had blood in it, as sinful (Acts 15). On the other hand, I would urge the other group of believers not to take the same view of their politically and/or economically industrious and influential brethren. Instead, we need to keep God’s kingdom, which we are subjects and representatives of, as it truly is. It’s not focused on the incidental and necessary aspects of life in this earthly realm, but on the spiritual and moral character of the Lord’s servants and royal priests.

To reiterate how Paul summarizes the nature of the kingdom of God, he says that it literally “is” “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” What Paul is saying is that if you want to experience God’s kingdom on earth, then you must experience a righteous relationship and lifestyle before God, inner and interpersonal peace within and among Christians, and inner and expressive joy that believers possess both within their hearts, and through their behavior. Finally, all three of these virtues are produced and cultivated by the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit that comes from the King who reigns in heaven. Such righteousness, peace, and joy, can’t be created by any human efforts, but only by the work of the Spirit as He responds to the supernaturally-granted faith that believers exercise with reference to the promises and teachings of the gospel.

And so we’re back to the subject that we began this look into Scripture with – the preaching and teaching of the gospel to formerly worldly people, so that through the Spirit’s power, they rely on it, and live lives of obedience to the commands and teaching of the Lord Jesus through His apostles. Then what does the outworking of righteous, peaceful, and joyful living look like among the heavenly outposts of God’s kingdom? It looks like believers pursuing “the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (v. 19).

This “building up” of God’s family, priesthood, and city on earth is the primary and essential catalyst for the increasing influence of the Lord’s kingdom with the subjects of Satan, the ruler of this world. As citizens of heaven, this building should be our primary concern, since most of those who have become disciples have yet to observe all that the Lord has commanded us Himself, and through the teachings of the apostles. It is this building of one another that will enable us to become more like our heavenly King, and be better able, and more willing, to herald the glad tidings of His victory over sin, death, and hell; of His present reign in heaven; of His coming judgment on His enemies; and the establishment of the eternal form of His kingdom in the new heavens and new earth.

Let us continually, and increasingly, seek to walk worthy of God’s kingdom, advance its power over the slaves of the devil through the gospel, and look forward to the day when we experience the ultimate completion of our kingly righteousness, peace, and joy through the Holy Spirit, in the glorious presence of our Lord and King, Jesus the Anointed. Until He comes, pray for God’s kingdom to increasingly come, avoid being conformed to this world, and be worthy representatives of the kingdom of God, and our eternally worthy King.