We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

contrast

5 Distinctions of God’s Kingdom

Jesus said that his kingdom was “not from this world,” for it contrasts with the kingdom of the world in every possible way. This is not a simple contrast between good and evil. The contrast is rather between two fundamentally different ways of doing life, two fundamentally different mindsets and belief systems, two fundamentally different loyalties.

Here are 5 basic contrasts:

A contrast of trusts

The kingdom of the world trusts the power of the sword, while the kingdom of God trusts the power of the cross.

A contrast of aims

The kingdom of the world seeks to control behavior, while the kingdom of God seeks to transform lives from the inside out. Also, the kingdom of the world is rooted in preserving, if not advancing, one’s self-interests and one’s own will, while the kingdom of God is centered exclusively on carrying out God’s will, even if this requires sacrificing one’s own interests.

A contrast of scopes

The kingdom of the world is intrinsically tribal in nature, and is heavily invested in defending, if not advancing, one’s own people-group, one’s nation, one’s ethnicity, one’s state, one’s religion, one’s ideologies, or one’s political agendas. That is why it is a kingdom characterized by perpetual conflict. The kingdom of God, however, is intrinsically universal, for it is centered on simply loving as God loves. The kingdom-of-God participant has by love transcended the tribal and nationalistic parameters of whatever version of the kingdom of the world they find themselves in.

A contrast of responses

The kingdom of the world is intrinsically a tit-for-tat kingdom; its motto is “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” In this fallen world, no version of the kingdom of the world can survive for long by loving its enemies and blessing those who persecute it; it carries the sword, not the cross. But kingdom-of-God participants carry the cross, not the sword. We, thus, aren’t ever to return evil with evil, violence with violence. We are rather to manifest the unique kingdom of Christ by returning evil with good. Far from seeking retaliation, we seek the well-being of our “enemy.”

A contrast of battles

The kingdom of the world has earthly enemies and, thus fights earthly battles; the kingdom of God, however, by definition has no earthly enemies, for its disciples are committed to love “their enemies,” thereby treating them as friends.

—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Nation, pages 46-48

Photo credit: theilr via Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA

Related Reading

Rekindling an Old Debate: How to be a Christian Citizen

Back in 2008 Greg joined Shane Claiborne and the now deceased Chuck Colson with host Krista Tippet on NPR’s On Being program to debate what it means to be a Christian citizen. Given the current political climate and a renewed interest in this conversation NPR decided to re-release it. If you’d like to view the discussion…

Living As If God Exists

It is so easy to do our daily stuff of life as though God does not exist. This is not a statement about our beliefs about God’s existence. It’s a statement about our moment-by-moment living. This is even true for those of us who spend most of our time in daily work that is directly…

Does Romans 13 Condone Government Violence? (podcast)

Greg deconstructs problematic interpretations of Romans 13.  Episode 649 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0649.mp3

Have You Taken a Gospel Immunization Shot?

Why does being “Christian” in America make so little difference in so many people’s lives, when the kingdom movement revealed in the New Testament revolutionized people’s lives? This drastic difference is hardly surprising when you consider that the gospel that people are often given today is little more than a contract of acquittal that is…

Topics:

What Kind of Sinners Feel Welcomed by Your Church?

Perhaps the greatest indictment on evangelical churches today is that they are not generally known as refuge houses for sinners—places where hurting, wounded, sinful people can run and find love that does not question, an understanding that does not judge, and an acceptance that knows no conditions. To be sure, evangelical churches are usually refuge…

Getting Free From the Sin of Sodom: Living With Outrageous Generosity

Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. Erich Fromm Jesus, the poor and the greedy Though it’s often missed by American Christians, confronting poverty was central to everything Jesus was about. Jesus didn’t just care about the poor. Though he was…