“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31
The Kingdom of God is not an earthly dominion readily observable by human eyes, which are often more inclined to focus on life in this world. In the focal passage, we witness an exchange between Jesus and a scribe in which they both agree on the “Greatest Commandment.” In essence, it is a call to love God with all our hearts, which then shapes our attitudes and actions toward our neighbors in love.
The scribe’s response to Jesus’s answer reveals his deeper understanding of this command. Offerings and sacrifices were required under the Old Testament Levitical sacrificial system as acts of worship and as a means of giving oneself back to God. However, the Jews were often rebuked by God for performing these acts merely as ritualistic expressions of obedience, while their hearts remained disengaged. They honored God with their lips, but their hearts were not with Him.
For example, while continually bringing required offerings to God, they simultaneously upheld and promoted a culture in Israel filled with injustice. God’s response in Amos 5:21-24 states:
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. (22) Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. (23) Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. (24) But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Obedience in love for God and His creation is more important than offering our self-righteous deeds and proclamations that we deem sufficient to satisfy Him. In his exchange with Jesus, the scribe appeared to grasp this important truth. In response, Jesus tells him (verse 34), “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
What is this Kingdom of God Jesus is referring to?
Again, it is not an earthly kingdom. Jesus tells the Pharisees (Luke 17:20-21):
“…The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
The Kingdom of God has its origins in Heaven, where His throne is, and is brought down to earth to be displayed in the birth, life (gospel work), death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the “Good News” of salvation available to all nations, tribes, and tongues, not just a select, nationalistic group or socio-ethnic people. To enter God’s Kingdom, a new birth is required. In other words, one must believe in Christ for salvation (by faith). If saving faith is granted, one is made a new creation by God (i.e., regeneration).
Then His Kingdom comes to dwell in and work through such a person by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit. Such a person will become an odd and peculiar individual in society, as they will live by a belief structure and ethic that is contrary to this world. Jesus warns a Pharisee named Nicodemus (John 3:5), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” It is only through new birth that we can move beyond external, pious acts of righteousness.
Please understand that no Christian obeys God’s commandments perfectly. Any “Kingdom” fruit we produce requires a new heart and a new mind through new creation (2 Cor 5:17). When we are true citizens of God’s kingdom, our thinking is progressively transformed to transcend the tribal dysfunction that has ravaged both the world and the church today. Remember, God does not desire sacrificial deeds or political pontificating that are not rooted in a self-examining love for Him and His image-bearers, in light of His Word.
How Do We Reflect Kingdom Love?
First, we need to fully embrace that the values and socio-economics of the Kingdom of God operate by different rules (Source: The Bible). One example of this is that, instead of hating those we disagree with, “Kingdom” citizens love their enemies by dealing mercifully and graciously with those who live in error—just as we all once did in our lives of sin before Christ (Lk 6:27-36). The Apostle Paul instructs us (2 Tim 2:24-26):
“…the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, (25) correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, (26) and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
Remember, obedience is better than self-righteous sacrifice. To love God and pursue His ways in faith, by the power of the Spirit, leads to the magnifying of His Kingdom through us (which is the spiritual kingdom—cf. Jn 18:33-36) in a lost world of men who are without hope outside of Christ. Let us pray that God grants us a joyful heart that declares (Ps 119:97), “O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Such a person endeavors daily not to exalt earthly thinking and personal beliefs above the knowledge and wisdom of God. Instead, he abandons them and holds fast to faith in Christ.
It is Christ whom we aim to imitate in our earthly lives so that His Kingdom will shine forth like the sun in a world where spiritual darkness abounds. Let us not be content with being “not far from the kingdom of God.” Rather, let us enter His Kingdom by dying to the old life and its affections, and rising from the dead to new life in Christ. Only then can we begin to understand and live a life in pursuit of loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.
(Other suggested scripture reading for further study and reflection: Psalm 51:16-17, John 3:1-8, 1 Cor 6:9-11)
Dr. Jason S. Price, Th.D
www.springoflivingwaters.com
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