A Pastor’s Thoughts: Which Kingdom?

As a DEA Agent I worked undercover; which was basically assuming a false identity and doing a good job of convincing people to trust the false ‘me’. Back then (I told myself), taking drugs off the streets justified the slight ‘bending’ of God’s law about being truthful.

I mean, that’s okay, isn’t it? There are so many things wrong in this world, so many things that need fixing. Without getting creative now and then, nothing will ever change. And after all, God wants what’s good for us, right?

Right. The problem is that immersed in the troubles of this world, we can easily forget what ‘good for us’ really means, and we start defining ‘good’ in worldly terms.

We know that, as Christians we are called to be in the world, but not of the world (cf. John 15: 18-19, 17:14-19). God’s word, particularly in John’s Gospel and letters, reveals the world as that which stands outside and against the Kingdom. Yet it seems more and more these days whatever improves the conditions of our daily lives and the world around us we call good, without a thought given to our souls. 

This is the first of two ways we get the Kingdom / world relationship wrong these days. It’s what Christian writers have called a split-vision, or dualistic, worldview. In this view, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world are two separate domains: the Kingdom of God’s jurisdiction is our spiritual life. Everything else is secular, subject only to the rules of the world.

In a split-vision world I don’t have to love those who are seen as a threat to my way of life. Deviating from the truth is okay if it gets the job done. In a split-vision world, politics and economics are just secular activities; some things are ‘just business’ and some things are ‘just politics’. In a split-vision world I can serve both God and money. 

God does require us to be good citizens, to render to Caesar (Matthew 22:21), and to obey civil authority, whose authority comes from God (Romans 13:1-7) – in all things not contrary to God’s law, because we are citizens of the Kingdom first – and God did not give Caesar the keys of the Kingdom. 

“I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me,” John 14:30. Why should the ruler of the world have any power over our souls?

When I made a habit of compromising my relationship with God for the sake of a societal good, I wound up not liking myself very much. When I looked in the mirror I saw a disciple of the world, not of the Kingdom. If I were starting my career today I would still choose to put my life on the line for my country, but not my soul.

The other way we get Kingdom / world wrong is by trying to unite them. The idea here is that Christianity should take control of the governing apparatus and declare this country a Christian nation. Laws should be enforced based on (someone’s version of) Christian principles. (It’s worth noting here that the beliefs held by many Christian churches are diametrically opposed to each other, so codification of one version would be tantamount to suppression of the other.)

Recent polls show that about 30 percent of Americans are in favor of, or sympathetic to establishing the United States as a Christian country. Indeed, for everyone in the United States to be Christian would be the answer to millions of prayers. But the Kingdom of God does not come by force. That would deny one of the most elemental aspects of our being as creatures fashioned in the image and likeness of God: we have free will. 

The Kingdom comes through preaching and witness and loving. And, if need be, suffering. To try to combine the Kingdom and the world would be like trying to combine matter and antimatter – both would be destroyed. 

So, which Kingdom? Each of us has a choice. We can choose the world, OR we can choose the Kingdom. Not both. “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24b).