A cit­i­zen of God’s King­dom lives out dif­fer­ently from the rest of the world. He/She is now a child of the Most High, and now as a part of the fam­ily of God, live out in a way that fol­lows whole­heart­edly the way of Christ. Fol­low­ing the Jesus way, looks dif­fer­ently than any other way of life.

We are all a part of a type of king­dom¹, whether we would like to believe it or not. Some of us live in a democ­racy, where our voices are appar­ently heard through our vote. Some are a part of a dic­ta­tor­ship, where the whims and fan­cies of a tyrant are set into motion.

Some king­doms are a lit­tle more sub­tle. It could be the king­dom of com­fort that we build around our lives; it gives a sense of con­trol and peace. It could be a king­dom of con­sump­tion, where we desire, covet, and do what we must to have what we must have. Maybe it’s a king­dom of envi­ron­men­tal igno­rance, where we could care less about the planet that God cre­ated for our ben­e­fit but not for our abuse. Maybe it’s a king­dom of jihad, where we kill those who are against our reli­gion and are rewarded with riches and plea­sure in the afterlife.

The King­dom Of God Is Not…

What does it mean to be a part of God’s King­dom? As Christ-followers, we are now a part of that king­dom, and it would nat­u­rally fol­low that we learn what it means to be its cit­i­zen. Our great­est exam­ple then would be the life and mes­sage of Jesus. In His per­son we may find what we must adhere to, and what we must com­pletely purge from our lives.

Right before Jesus begins His earthly min­istry, we find that Jesus is fast­ing forty days and forty nights…

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilder­ness to be tempted by the devil. And after fast­ing forty days and forty nights, he was hun­gry.
Matthew 4:1,2 ESV

Three things are to be noticed:

1. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilder­ness – What this means is that some­how this fasting/temptation period was divinely ordained by His Father, to pre­pare Him for min­istry. It is the final door that Jesus must pass through as He enters into the full rev­e­la­tion of His per­son to the world. The impli­ca­tions are that Jesus’ response to this time of trial and test­ing is cru­cial to the rest of His life.
2. He was tempted by the devil – This was no easy road to walk on; this temp­ta­tion was real and not con­trived. He was not bat­tling Him­self, nor some other indi­vid­ual, but was tempted by the devil him­self. Jesus had to be tempted by the devil, and in His response to the devil, we find how we as Christ-followers must respond to the devil’s temptations.
3. He was hun­gry – Jesus here will­fully is led by the Spirit to this point of depri­va­tion, and He is hun­gry. His body is weak, and His human­ity is now severely lim­it­ing Him. How he responds to His hunger will illus­trate to us how we must respond to the depri­va­tions that attack our own soul

The temp­ta­tions of the devil towards Jesus, pro­vide for us the basis of Kingdom-life. What would Jesus give into? What would He not give into? What is His King­dom about? His responses teach us about true Kingdom-life.

The Lust Of The Flesh

As we read on Matthew 4, we find Jesus’ first temptation:

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, com­mand these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is writ­ten, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:3,4 ESV

In this temp­ta­tion, the devil bemoans Christ’s hunger pains from fast­ing, and asks Christ to illus­trate his divinely cre­ative power. If how­ever Christ fol­lows through with such abuse of His per­son, He nat­u­rally remains dri­ven by pas­sions and lust. He would be per­son dri­ven by the lust of His own flesh. In this act He would fol­low through with the nat­ural desires of the flesh.

In Christ’s response we find the basis for the Christian’s response in such sit­u­a­tions. Christ’s sub­mis­sion to His Father’s will, exem­pli­fies for us our sub­mis­sion to Christ’s will. God desires to break us down and prove to us that He is our sole provider. In this He desires to illus­trate His Lord­ship over our lives.

We must cru­cify our flesh as we find our­selves mem­bers of Christ and His Body. This cru­ci­fix­ion of the flesh so cre­ates in us a death to self; but it results in life in Christ anew. This death to flesh, daily teaches us that we must put God’s will and His pur­pose above our own. There can be no more, “my will be done”. Rather it must be, “May Your will be done O God.”

Now as Chil­dren of a New Birth, as Inher­i­tors of a Heav­enly King­dom, we find our­selves joined to Christ’s Body. We are now His Bride and His Por­tion. Our lives are no longer our own, but have been bought and paid with the price of redemp­tion. We are slaves to right­eous­ness, indebted to Christ. Our flesh, though still sin­ful, is now to come under the rule of Christ.

The Pride Of Life

As we read on, we see Christ’s sec­ond temptation:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pin­na­cle of the tem­ple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw your­self down, for it is writ­ten, ‘He will com­mand his angels con­cern­ing you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is writ­ten, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Matthew 4:5-7 ESV

The devil tempts Jesus at His self-preservation. Jesus here is tempted to save Him­self. This temp­ta­tion implies that His Heav­enly Father is inca­pable of sav­ing Him. What it really asks Jesus is, “Do you really trust Your Heav­enly Father?” It is really a ques­tion of pride. The devil wants Jesus to do what­ever with­out account­abil­ity or lead­ing. The devil wants Jesus to take things into His own hands.

As Chris­tians, we can fol­low the devil’s temp­ta­tion to take life into our own hands. We at times wish to walk our own paths, apart from the lead­ing of the Lord, and yet still claim the pro­tec­tion of our Lord. We want to live in a lifestyle of pride, instead of humil­ity and meek­ness. We run from sub­mit­ting to our Heav­enly Father’s will.

It is one thing to saw we fol­low God. It is quite another to live that out. To fol­low God means we trust and obey, and not take things into our hands. It means we sub­mit will­ingly to God’s lead­ing, just as Jesus fol­lowed His Father’s lead. Our lives are not our own any more.

The Lust Of The Eyes

As we con­tinue on, we read of Jesus’ third and final temptation:

Again, the devil took him to a very high moun­tain and showed him all the king­doms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and wor­ship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is writ­ten, ‘You shall wor­ship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Matthew 4:8-10 ESV

The devil takes Jesus here and shows him all the king­doms of the earth, and offers it to Him, but demands wor­ship as pay­ment. He attacks the author­ity of Christ. In this temp­ta­tion Jesus is tempted to receive His inher­i­tance through a means apart from His Heav­enly Father. He is asked to turn His eyes away from His Father and wor­ship the devil. He would essen­tially be turn­ing His back on the blessed com­mu­nion of Trin­ity He shared with His Father and the Holy Spirit.

The God we serve is a jeal­ous God and He demands com­plete obe­di­ence. He demands our eyes to be for Him alone and no one else. To know what you are wor­ship­ing, find out what you are look­ing at the most; because what you dwell on, what you put your energy toward, that is what you worship.

When we lust with our eyes, we flirt with what we can­not have, and we also flirt with get­ting what we are sup­posed to have by the wrong means. We turn our eyes of wor­ship from the LORD and sub­mit them to a lesser thing. Essen­tially, we invite the wrath of God. When we lust with our eyes, we are dri­ven by a self­ish moti­va­tion; this moti­va­tion then turns on us and we despise what we have gained, because we gained it through improper means.

True inher­i­tors are self­less, because they real­ize they are inher­i­tors. They did not earn or through self­ish means gain some­thing. They rather responded in wor­ship to the LORD and Provider of their souls, and inher­ited a reward much greater and more ful­fill­ing than any other. Their response is true wor­ship back to God.

The Way Of The Cross

When Jesus was inter­ro­gated by Pon­tius Pilate, right before His death, we read of Christ’s per­spec­tive on God’s Kingdom:

My king­dom is not of this world. If my king­dom were of this world, my ser­vants would have been fight­ing, that I might not be deliv­ered over to the Jews. But my king­dom is not from the world.
John 18:36 ESV

Christ’s mis­sion was to bring this new King­dom on earth. This King­dom was break­ing forth, and His sac­ri­fi­cial death ini­ti­ated this new King­dom. His life was a life meant for oth­ers. He died so that oth­ers may have life.

That is what God’s King­dom is all about. It is a king­dom of self­less­ness, where life is lived for the other. It is king­dom of wor­ship to God, and a king­dom of ser­vice to others.

The apos­tles under­stood this, and will­ingly lived in such a way that many would be saved. Paul writes of the lifestyle he lives in his first let­ter to the Corinthians:

For I think that God has exhib­ited us apos­tles as last of all, like men sen­tenced to death, because we have become a spec­ta­cle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in dis­re­pute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buf­feted and home­less, and we labor, work­ing with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when per­se­cuted, we endure; when slan­dered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
I Corinthi­ans 4:9-13 ESV

They under­stood that if the king­dom of God were to con­tin­u­ally break forth in all the earth, there would have to be those who sac­ri­fi­cially give up their rights, their com­forts, their dreams, their visions, their earthly pos­ses­sions. They would have to let their sac­ri­fice, their cross, be the path to which they follow.

Here at the cross is the man who loves his ene­mies, the man whose right­eous­ness is greater than that of the Phar­isees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despite­fully use him. The cross is not a detour or a hur­dle on the way to the king­dom, nor is it even the way to the king­dom; it is the king­dom come.
John Howard Yoder in his book, The Pol­i­tics Of Jesus

Some would think that the Chris­t­ian life is one of reward and promise, where you are blessed beyond all mea­sure, and hardly work to do any­thing. It is a life of per­sonal ful­fill­ment and com­fort. Faith for such as these become moral­is­tic and even­tu­ally legal­is­tic. There is not ele­ment of self­less­ness, and a Cross-mentality. There life is their own. Their spir­i­tu­al­ity is a means to grow in their own per­son, and become great in their eyes.

Jesus encoun­tered such an indi­vid­ual in the rich young ruler that came to Him. In Mark’s gospel we read that this man could not give up his nat­ural earthly pos­ses­sions to the poor. His reli­gion was merely a means to be blessed and grow fat and rich in that blessing.

And Jesus, look­ing at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have trea­sure in heaven; and come, fol­low me.” Dis­heart­ened by the say­ing, he went away sor­row­ful, for he had great pos­ses­sions.
Mark 10:21,22 ESV

This rich young ruler did not under­stand Jesus’ heart; that true reli­gion is to pro­vide for wid­ows and orphans. He did not under­stand that Jesus’ way was really a way of death. It was a way of the Cross, where you die to all that you are, and live out in love and sacrifice.

The way of the Cross, the king­dom, is demanded of every Christ-follower. We are to fol­low Christ’s path in liv­ing for oth­ers and becom­ing ser­vants of all. The great­est among us is the really the ser­vant of all.

Come Out Of The World

An early Chris­t­ian said this about Chris­tians dur­ing the time of the Roman Empire:

They charge us on two points: that we do not sac­ri­fice and that we do not believe in the same gods as the State.
Athenago­ras

The god of the Roman state was appar­ent in the Cae­sars, and the lesser gods of the Greco-Roman pan­theon were wor­shiped in soci­ety as well. The Chris­tians did not sac­ri­fice to these gods. They were dif­fer­ent. They did not bow down to Cae­sar or any other thing for that mat­ter. They wor­shiped God alone.

What are the gods we wor­ship in our soci­ety today? Maybe it is the god of com­fort, or plea­sure, or secu­rity, or money, or sex, or fame, or glory…etc. The gods of soci­eties, though they have taken on new forms and new names, are cre­ated by the sin­ful­ness of the human heart, as man turns away from God Himself.

The apos­tle John writes of the Bablyon, the sym­bol of the great­ness of earthly king­doms, and warns the body of Christ to remain within the world, but not become like the world.

Come out of her, my peo­ple, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remem­bered her iniq­ui­ties.
Rev­e­la­tion 18:4,5 ESV

John writes to a the Churches of Asia, and tells them, that no mat­ter how much of a sac­ri­fice you have to make, no mat­ter how pecu­liar you must be, come out of the world, and remain sep­a­rate. There can be no syn­cretism between you and the world.

We are called to come out of the world and not be entan­gled by the world. It is become increas­ingly dif­fi­cult to pure but main­tain prox­im­ity to a dying and depraved world; yet this is our call.

Many of us are caught up liv­ing like the world. There is absolutely no dif­fer­ence between us and the world. Some of us live like pagans. Many Chris­tians use the excuse that Chris­tians are to under­stand the world and know the world, but their desires are self­ish at best. Most Chris­tians com­pro­mise for noth­ing more than their own lazi­ness, self­ish­ness, and pride. It is a self-seeking endeavor.

An Alter­na­tive Community

We must live in purity before the Lord, as we live in close prox­im­ity to the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world.

We must not strive to be like the world, so as to attract them to us. The logic there is flawed. Why would the world be attracted to some­thing com­mon and even nor­mal to them? What would be the point of attract­ing some­one who lives in sin, to some­thing that looks like sin?

We must rather pro­vide an alter­na­tive com­mu­nity, an alter­na­tive expres­sion, where we some­thing alto­gether more beau­ti­ful and bet­ter. We must seek to be orig­i­nal, not seek to be rel­e­vant. Rel­e­vance fol­lows originality.

The Rev­e­la­tion Of The Sons Of God

The world is wait­ing for Chris­tians to be some­thing dif­fer­ent. They are wait­ing for us to bring the good­ness of God to them. They might not know it yet, but they crave our love and com­pas­sion. They crave our self­less­ness and our will to influ­ence change.

What are we will­ing to lose, for the sal­va­tion of a soul? What are will­ing to sac­ri­fice, so the world would be brought close to Jesus?

For I con­sider that the suf­fer­ings of this present time are not worth com­par­ing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the cre­ation waits with eager long­ing for the reveal­ing of the sons of God. For the cre­ation was sub­jected to futil­ity, not will­ingly, but because of him who sub­jected it, in hope that the cre­ation itself will be set free from its bondage to cor­rup­tion and obtain the free­dom of the glory of the chil­dren of God. For we know that the whole cre­ation has been groan­ing together in the pains of child­birth until now. And not only the cre­ation, but we our­selves, who have the first­fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adop­tion as sons, the redemp­tion of our bod­ies.
Romans 8:18-23 ESV

The world is wait­ing for us to man­i­fest the good­ness of God, to man­i­fest the per­son of Christ. We must live out in right­eous­ness, peace and joy. As we grow in rela­tion­ship with God, as Jesus shines brighter in our lives, as the Holy Spirit empow­ers us to be Christ’s hands and feet, as we live in com­mu­nity with fel­low mem­bers of Christ’s body, as we go into the world and bring Christ’s mes­sage of Good News, we advance God’s King­dom on earth.