Kingdom Pursuit (5)

“...and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king – Jesus.”Acts 17.7

A peculiar people
To their contemporaries, the first Christians were a most peculiar breed.

They didn’t participate in the diversions and activities that everyone else did in order to satisfy certain lusts of the flesh (1 Pet. 4.1-4). They publicly and at no small cost repudiated cultural activities or artifacts that represented a worldview contrary to the teaching of Christ (Acts 19.18-20). They didn’t keep their religion to themselves, either; in fact, Jesus Christ was so much a part of their everyday conversation that their unbelieving neighbors took to calling them the “Christ-ones” (Acts 11.26). And in the hard areas of life – such as refusing to acknowledge civil government as the last word on what one could say or do – they stood firm for the confession of Jesus as their only King and Lord (Acts 17.7; 5.29).

They were a peculiar people, indeed, because they had made the Kingdom turn and were pursuing an order and rule that was making all things new.

All things new!
The first Christians knew that they could not seek the Kingdom of God as long as they, in any way, held on to friendship with the world spirit of the age (Jms. 4.4; 1 Jn. 2.15-17). They could not love the world and all things in it and love the Lord Jesus at the same time. They were seeking a new social order, following a new ethic, committed to a new King, and drawing on a new power according to a new worldview which, increasingly, they learned by hearing and obeying the Word of God.

The Kingdom of God, by the Light of the Gospel, is making headway against the darkness of unbelief and sin (1 Jn. 2.8, 17; Dan. 2.44, 45). And while the tares of wickedness continue to crop up everywhere, the citizens of God’s Kingdom know that they are called to a mission of sowing and cultivating the truth of God in every area of life.

And as they do so, they encounter the spirit of the age, and know that this spirit must be denied and ejected for the Spirit of the Kingdom to come in power.

At odds in every way
Thus, all who pursue the Kingdom of God must expect that, in many and various ways, their way of life will put them at odds with the prevailing worldviews of their contemporaries.

Our manner of conducting relationships will be based on self-denying love, rather than self-serving calculation.

We will do our work in an attitude of thanksgiving, and with diligence, excellence, and efficiency, never grumbling or complaining.

Our conversation will fill the air with the sweet melodies of the exalted Christ, and we will utterly refuse to participate in anything scurrilous, vulgar, deceitful, or mean-spirited.

Our tastes in culture will be of a decidedly higher order, and, while we will appreciate all the gifts of God, wherever He manifests them in the cultural activities of our day, we will demonstrate in the way we participate in culture that we serve a most noble, holy, and worthy Being, rather than our own lusts.

All our ethical behavior will be grounded in “This is what the Lord says” and not whatever the temper of the times – what Schaeffer referred to as “the spirit of the naturalism of the age” – dictates or allows.

Make no mistake about it: As we force ourselves further into the Kingdom of God, we will find ourselves increasingly at odds with the world spirit of our age.

Make up your mind!
But we will make little progress in convincing our neighbors that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is at all meaningful and significant apart from the comprehensive manifestation, in every area of our lives, of the newness and power of the Kingdom of God.

Make up your mind that following Christ and pursuing His Kingdom will mean that every day, if only in some small way, you need to be prepared to resist the spirit of the age.

Pray without ceasing and struggle without growing weary, and you’ll find the Lord will be with you to strengthen, encourage, and take you one step further along in your quest to advance His Kingdom. 

Next steps: Take one of the obstacles you identified in the question about. Work on overcoming that obstacle for the next several days. Share your struggle and progress in this effort with a prayer partner or friend.

T. M. Moore

Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Pursuit, is the fifth of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.