It’s also a kingdom where the first will be last. Where the greatest must be a servant of all. And where success is defined as laying down one’s life.
A Kingdom of Domination?
But I’m not sure this is the kingdom the church (at least the church in the West) likes to promote. It seems to me that the church tends to lean into ideas of conquering and domination. We talk about “expanding the kingdom of God” or “advancing the kingdom of God.” We talk about “taking back our city for Jesus” or setting goals like “making this the greatest city for Christ in America.”
Listen, I think it would be great if a majority of people in a city become followers of Jesus. But I wonder if “taking the city” is the way Jesus would think about his Kingdom.
How Jesus Talked About the Kingdom
In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus said, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or, ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
You may know that the phrase “the kingdom of God is in your midst” might also be translated, “the kingdom of God is within you.” In other words, the Kingdom of God isn’t so much a cause we need to advance or a fortress we need to build. The Kingdom of God is more like a seed (didn’t Jesus say something about that?). It is something that grows and emerges as the people of God live into their calling, their vocation.
God’s kingdom is within you. The Kingdom of God is in your midst. And as we live out who God has called and created us to be, the Kingdom will begin to bloom like a wildflower in the desert.
This article on God’s kingdom originally appeared here.
