So what’s the kingdom of God? One of my favorite Bible verses is Romans 14:17. It says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It tells us what the kingdom of God is. It is righteousness and peace and joy. These are essentially experienced as feelings and emotions for human beings. Righteousness is the English translation of the Greek word, ‘dikaiosunè’. It is an inner state of awareness that influences how you interact with and influence the people and world around you. It is a feeling of doing God’s will in your life, having integrity, and treating other people fairly. Peace is the English translation of the Greek word, ‘eirènè’. It is a feeling that you have about how you relate to surroundings and other people, and how both relate to you. It is a state of tranquility, and harmony and concord between individuals. It includes the feelings of happiness, prosperity, security, and safety, since harmony and peace make your environment prosperous and safe. Joy is the English translation of the Greek word, ‘chara’. It is an inner state, a feeling of gladness. It is a condition of intense happiness. It comes from other people or occasions or events that you view as very positive. It contains a sense of gratitude and conducts the energy of love from God.
Romans 14:17:
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
ou gar estin hè basileia tou theou bròsis kai posis
not therefore is the kingdom of the God food and drink
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
alla dikaiosunè kai eirènè kai chara en pneumatic hagiò
but righteousness and peace and joy in spirit holy
Matthew 6:10
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
elethetò hè basileia sou, genèthètò to thelèma sou, hòs en ouranò kai epi gès
come the kingdom your created the will your both in heaven and on earth
The Lord’s prayer states in part, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Relating this to Romans 14:17, you can easily figure out that God’s will is that we express the righteousness and peace and joy of his kingdom in heaven here on earth as well. Transcribing the original Greek into Latin letters, we have the following words that make up the verse, from Romans “ou gar estin hè basileia tou theou bròsis kai posis, alla dikaiosunè kai eirènè kai chara en pneumati hagiò.” Now let’s look at a sentence in the Lord’s Prayer. It says, “Thy kingdom come.”, “elethetò hè basileia sou.” Now the word ‘kingdom’, ‘basileia’ is the same word in both sentences. So, if we want God’s kingdom to be in our lives and our reality, we should be expressing and living God’s spiritual energies of righteousness, peace and joy.
But is this how most Christians conduct their lives? Do most Christians live like this? Judging from my personal experience of attending church weekly for several decades, I have to say, “no.” Notice that the verse in Romans also tells us what the kingdom of God is NOT, which is eating and drinking, yet there are so many Christians that I have met who act as if it is. They think that judgmentalism over the grace of compassion and love is the spiritual approach to life. They express beliefs that cannot be justified by the scriptures in the New Testament. One is tithing, which was actually a requirement on Jews to make sure that there was food stored up for the people in times of scarcity. I remember one Christian telling me, “do you want to be blessed on the gross or the net” of your income for tithing. To him it was justification for worshiping Mammon over allowing the spiritual energies of God’s kingdom (righteousness, peace, joy) to flow like a river of life out into the world. Another one that I find amusing is the attitude towards smoking. I remember that during a service at Love Joy in Lancaster, NY, the preacher went off on a big diatribe on the sinfulness of smoking, and then he began quoting Spurgeon. I spontaneously laughed because Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was the most successful Christian minister in England during the 19th Century and know as the “Prince of Preachers”, regularly smoked tobacco while preaching. Sinfulness is actually not doing God’s will which, as the two Bible verses referenced above demonstrate, is expressing God’s love to others with righteousness, peace, and joy. Grace and legalism cannot be fruitfully yoked together.
I have heard preachers lament the fact that church attendance is shrinking in America. Ever wonder why that is? It’s because churches are for the most part social clubs where like-minded people gather to find security in the fact that they are so spiritual. It used to be that churches were the only social clubs of importance in small town America and the only game in town, but now they must compete with a variety of other social options. And with the legalism and judgmentalism that passes for so much of Christianity today, the churches will continue to lose membership.
If, however, Christians wake up and begin to express love instead of legalism, and compassion instead judgmentalism, then the rivers of life of righteousness, peace, and joy will flow out from them and attract new people like a good concert attracts music lovers.
taskwazen 