CHAPTER 8
Character, King and Citizen
English is a particularly emotive language. It is subliminally so, because of its grammar. Is a wife the subject or the object of a husband? It depends on how you write your sentence! In reality, it is neither. English Grammar makes it difficult to express interdependence within a short sentence. Both words, subject and object, carry concept association that do not apply in reality. Husband and wife are mutually dependent, or should be!241 But that does not stop the hackles rising when words like: subject, submit, or subordinate arise in English Bibles. Paul got a bad name because poor English grammar translations misrepresent what he was trying to say. Returning to our robot with artificial intelligence and autonomy from early chapters, it is the autonomy part of our robot’s program, that wants to block out any notion of a creator and designer, because autonomy finds these restricting.
Is the king the subject or the object of the kingdom? Does the kingdom exist for the king, or the king for the kingdom? Answer, they should be mutually dependent. World-Kingdoms design their systems around the king. The king, by any other name, takes subjects, and treats them as objects. As power increases, a World-Kingdom king, presumes subjects are there for his benefit. The Kingdom-of-God, is designed around autonomous citizen groups, who need a king. Human limitations built into Adam and Eve, required a king for their own protection. They were simply not clever enough to understand all the workings and structures of creation, but their autonomy, overriding logic and emotion, won the day. Autonomy rebelled against the idea of obedience, and limited humanoid intellect submitted to it. Choosing to eat one sweet now, rather than several later, is foolishness, but an impulsive, emotional, human trait. It did not take long to discover, choosing the little enticement of knowledge now, rather than submission to God’s law and greater wisdom later, was the foolishness of human nature. All that did was return natural law to chaos. Law is the base on which the nature of this universe survives.
The word ‘subject’, occurs seventeen times, and only in the New-Testament. Submission is never forced. Force never produces submission, only resentment and rebellion. Autonomy, (or as jargon would have it, free-will), must always be freely surrendered to another, lest it plants resentment and grows rebellion. True submission responds to gratitude, not fear. Gratitude is a recognition of wiser-authority that has your best in mind.
Even in the demonic realm, (where control and power are chief motivators), Authority lines are recognized, but to be commanded by those without authority produces great resentment.
Some Jewish men started going around trying to force out evil spirits by using the name of the Lord Jesus. They said to the spirits, "Come out in the name of that same Jesus that Paul preaches about!" Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, when an evil spirit said to them, "I know Jesus! And I have heard about Paul. But who are you?" Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them up. They ran out of the house, naked and bruised.242
These men sought a sweetie now. They wanted recognition and power without understanding. It is not a form of words that matters, but the authority that empowers the words.
Kingdom citizens take their example of submission from a Servant-King.
“Abba, Father! You can do all things. Don't make me drink from this cup. But do what you want, not what I want”.243
John, was not thinking of beards and blue eyes when he announced:
We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is. He is pure, and everyone who has this hope in him keeps themselves pure like Christ.244
Our likeness is not in robes and sandals, but in the spiritual motivation, which produces the character, which performs the action, which displays the authority, by which we live.
Cultivating Citizenship
Plant a Hydrangea in acid soil, it will be blue, in alkaline soil it will be pink. Maybe Naaman knew what he was doing, when he loaded up bags of soil onto his donkey to take home.245 Maybe Paul knew exactly what he was doing when he opposed the Judaizers who wanted to add works to grace soil. Culture is formed by soil in which citizens put down their roots, which makes it harder for citizens who live in a foreign kingdom. Aliens in foreign lands, usually form communities in those lands to protect their culture. Communities are bags of soil carried from a homeland.
Self-worth, self-esteem, and self-significance, are seeds deep in the motivation of humanoids. Where those seed put down roots, will colour the fruit produced.246 In kingdom language, we are talking about the soil of the kingdom, and how it shapes the fruit of life.
World-Kingdoms grow, ‘me’, fruit. Self-preservation, and self-protection, are nutrients in plenty in World-Kingdom soil. Remember, ‘take’ is the key word for World-Kingdom motivation. Its soil encourages the excessive growth of: competition; possession; influence; power; position; and independence. World-Kingdoms sell these products as self-worth, self-esteem, and self-significance, enhancers. You have heard them, ‘You are worth it’, they will say with their lips while their hearts declare, ‘There is one born every minute’.
When a person becomes a Kingdom-of-God citizen, three-stages of change occur due to the different soil. First, Kingdom-of-God soil reduces the distortion of fruit caused by the ‘me’, story. World-Kingdoms have to tell, ‘my stories’ of achievement to compete in self-worth, self-esteem, or self-significance. But the narrow corridor of escape between the two kingdoms, cleared for safe passage by Jesus, insists humans cannot reach the standards expected in, ‘me-cultures’.
Most humans will come into the Kingdom-of-God with the story, ‘God’s love only has eyes for me’, but quickly re-learn ‘God so loved the World. I am included in the ‘whosoever’, but not exclusive to it, (as many the preacher might sell it). The new constitution is God first, because I have no entry, but by Him; Others come second, because growth is the essential purpose of the kingdom; and ‘me’, comes last, because we have left a taking culture to join a giving culture. World-Kingdom soil is mainly phosphorous to encourage a root grab. Kingdom-of-God soil is rich in nitrogen, to produce fruit, for others to enjoy.
The second change, which not all Kingdom-of-God citizens want to take, is the ‘God loves me’ transformation. ‘If you were the only girl in the world … Nothing else would matter’.247 was sung by Solomon’s lover long before Dean Martin. The lover in the Song-of-Solomon, (as we mentioned earlier), thought being in love with the king meant, rolling around on her bed, waiting for him to call, and shadowing her eyes in a mirror. She quickly learned, Real love meant rolling up her sleeves, going to the fields and shadowing her lover in his work. Kingdom-of-God principle is giving not getting.
The prodigal son parable is about learning this lesson in three easy stages:
‘Give me now my inheritance’;
‘I am a fool, This does not satisfy’;
‘Make me as one of your servants’.
Anything changing motivation from ‘Give me’ to ‘Use me’, is evidence of fruit growth. World-Kingdom soil will use the oldest trick in the book to hide the difference. ‘Did not God say take no booty’, asked Samuel of Saul, ‘then what is the meaning of bleating sheep?’. ‘I thought they would make good sacrifice’, justified Saul. Translated into motivation-language, that reads literally, ‘I got caught taking the sheep, the best justification I can give now is, I was going to give them in sacrifice. ‘You have rejected the command of God therefore God has rejected you’, was the consequence248. God wants obedience not sacrifice249. Anointed or not, self-justifying your motivations, is World-Kingdom growth. ‘Seek first the Kingdom-of-God’, does not permit the use of World-Kingdom methods.
The third change, comes when soil changes talents, to gifts. Talents grow well in World-Kingdom soil but die in Kingdom-of-God soil. World-Kingdom soil, has an additive called competition. Competition, can degrade roots to comparison. Competition, makes talents stretch harder and go faster, but it can degrade the motivation to jealousy, or hate. Open to World-Kingdom soil, it looks for World-Kingdom methods to cheat. It has destroyed many who cannot live with low self-esteem, self-significance, or self-worth. Talent only lasts long enough for the next person to take your position. Talent asks, ‘Do I measure up to the team, or the job’. It will never contribute to self-confidence, self-esteem or self security, in the long run. Kingdom-of-God turns talents to gifts. Peter’s talent was fishing for fish. He knew boats, waters, weather, and fish feeding habits better than most. Peter’s gifting was the gab. A born leader who could persuade others to follow. Starting with Andrew, he shifted from Talent to Gift by introducing him to Jesus. Fearless, his self-assurance turned to boldness before the ruling Sanhedrin. World-Kingdom talent had to go, allowing his Kingdom-of-God gift to grow. Talents are, what I practice to impress. Gifts are what the spirit within, grows the character to become.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen250.
Gifts, grow when they are treasured. Grandma does not have a drawing displayed on her fridge because it is a Picasso, it only looks like one, because a grandchild gave it as a gift. It did not have to compete with Picasso for pride of place on the fridge door, it was a gift given in love by a loved one. Love has a way of turning values upside-down. The trace-element of the Kingdom-of-God is love. It revalues everything, yes, you are better than me, and I will value you as such. Submission kills competition, but your gift-fruit is for me to share, because this is the Kingdom-of-God.
Kingdom Communities
The shift away from a central temple to synagogues was always part of God’s deliberate plan. It was not God’s idea to build a grand temple, it was David’s. God only saw it as a desire of David’s heart and delayed it as long as he could.
‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose not to build a house in the tribes of Israel. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.’ Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house251.
In the wilderness, the tabernacle was the heart of the nation by design. Its purpose was to root the nation in a culture. All the clans camped around it in equality. It was the community centre, the education system, the law centre, and the welfare system. When the Children-of Israel first went into Israel land, they were forced to spread out away from one central tabernacle. Abandoning the tabernacle at Shiloh,252 they forgot to take the law and culture with them. Forty-years in the wilderness was supposed to get the law and culture into their beings, to produce a nation after God’s own heart. But when they left the Tabernacle at Shiloh, (for safe keeping of course), they also left Kingdom-of-God law and culture behind with it. Foreseen by Moses, he commissioned the Levites, not giving them grazing lands of their own, but spreading them out among the people. Their commission was to instruct and encourage the whole land in Kingdom-of-God living. But they did not, and the book of Judges records what happened.
This was also part of the bigger plan, when Israelites were carried off into Babylon. There they were obliged to set up small congregations as communities, by riversides and other local places, to support each other. Later, it was essential for the spread of the gospel, that one central temple at Jerusalem should be dismantled and synagogues established around the world. This was done in seventyAD. There has never been, throughout all history, a centralized religion, that has resisted a world-kingdom hierarchy system. Even Solomon, with all his wisdom, fell into this trap.
Part of the Kingdom-of-God good news is, God has broken down the hierarchy system between humans and God. God could now dwell among creation. It had been the task of Israel to demonstrate this to the world. Now it is the task of Kingdom-of-God people to demonstrate it as they spread over the world with the good news of the Kingdom-of-God. How could people of distant lands see the functioning of Kingdom-of-God? By seeing communities functioning on the pattern of the Kingdom within their own domain. One temple in a distant land, that had reverted to World-Kingdom hierarchy structures, could never demonstrate Kingdom-of-God living.
When Samuel anointed a king for the first time, it came with a change of emphasis on how God would judge a nation. The character of the king changed the soil of the nation. A good king produced kingdom fruit in the nation, a corrupt king turned it bad. Paul recognized this as an important principle when he was given the commission of establishing Gentile assemblies around the continents.
That is why he was so hot about leadership standards. Large parts of his letters remind leaders, their responsibility to the flock lies in a pure character first and foremost. His strong advice to be sure of mutual covering support from other leaders, comes from Jesus who established kingdom work as at minimum, a twofold bond. His strong warnings to leaders that they will be judged by higher standard than their flocks on judgment day, was also to persuade them to watch themselves carefully. He was himself criticized by many for his leadership styles, but never for his moral, ethical or spiritual lapse. Paul was very jealous in appointing leadership for this reason. The community can never go beyond its leadership, but a community will seek to attain the level of its leadership. The character of the king, stands paramount in a kingdom. David was a king after God’s own heart in spirit, but his flesh let him down. As such, the whole Kingdom took a dive. Jesus, recognizing this diversity in the disciples pointed it out to them:
Your spirit wants to do what is right, but your flesh is weak. 253
It comes as a great relief that a kingdom is to be judged on its king, and not weak citizens. The king has a covenant with his people. That is why no other king can be found suitable for the Kingdom-of-God. If the king is flawed, so will be the kingdom.
When David signed a covenant with his people to defend them from the Philistine gangs marauding their wheat crops, the people reneged on their side of the bargain, and ran. But David stood back to back with Shammah, to deliver the covenant.254
When Jesus came to the end of his earthly work, he could stand before his father and say ‘I kept them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me. I protected them. And only one of them was lost the one who was sure to be lost. This was to show the truth of what the Scriptures said would happen’.255 It was the work of the king that established the Kingdom-of-God through the cross. Without this King, there will be no kingdom for you and me. His authority is what gets us in, And His authority keeps us safe. That coming kingdom is only safe in the hands of that Servant-King. But in the meantime we live as aliens in World-Kingdoms.
Ambassadorial responsibilities.
Part of Jesus’ strategy, was to establish Kingdom-of-God culture in his twelve disciples. Towards the end of three-years, He deemed them ready for a greater role. Taking them aside for one final seminar, He summarized what they had discovered so far: I am the way to the Father256; I will set up the safe passage from this kingdom to the Kingdom-of-God257; I will not leave you alone, providing you remain in me.258 All this is now part of your culture. Now you are ready for the commission:
you are now no longer servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.259
Before Jesus returned to Heaven, He said to His followers:
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me. 260
The Kingdom God gave Jesus was passed on by Jesus to His followers not as theirs to do with it as they pleased, but as ambassadors in a foreign land until they are called home to an inheritance. God chooses for purpose, not privilege. Jesus left His followers with a responsibility of extending the Kingdom of God throughout the world. They were to be ambassadors of the Kingdom, and they were to spread kingdom culture under Kingdom-of-God rules of engagement. Those that seek to recruit at the point of the sword, will be harshly judged, not least for misrepresenting the Kingdom-of-God and its constitution. An ambassador is a representative sent by one kingdom to represent and transact business in another. He is a messenger and authorized agent of the kingdom he represents.
One more point Jesus made, before the seminar was over. Hold fast to these three points because your commission is to be ambassadors in a hostile kingdom261. The ambassador in a World-Kingdom does not have an easy task, but a worthwhile one. An ambassador must first, and foremost be a loyal citizen to his or her home country. Nearly all Jesus’s teachings, were instruction on citizen-allegiance. His life itself, on the other hand, is an example as to how ambassadors of the Kingdom-of-God should behave in World-Kingdoms. His death and resurrection, established a small corridor of safe passage, between World-Kingdom and the Kingdom-of-God, as he promised. The task of an ambassador? To set up and look after Kingdom-of-God communities all over World-Kingdoms. The purpose? For the world to see a contrast between the two kingdoms. World-Kingdom citizens can learn and absorb, this new culture into their own life. What principles are these communities to demonstrate and teach?
But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.262
Jesus established a basic Kingdom principle: ‘It shall not be so among you.’ Later in history, organizations, pretending to represent the Kingdom-of-God, set up hierarchical systems after the manner of World-Kingdom patterns. These have advanced religion, not the Kingdom-of-God. Many have brought the Kingdom-of-God into disrepute. Many have grown up as weeds in Kingdom-of-God fields. Harvest time will have the last say.
Before His death, Jesus prepared His disciples to continue the extension of the Kingdom. First, as observers of how the message of the Kingdom was to be presented. Where Jesus went and what he did, they observed.263 The scary bit came when Jesus sent them out to ‘preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick’.264 Finally, He commissioned them as ambassadors:
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.265
Part of that commission was to teach and train communities around the world, in the constitution and culture of Kingdom-of-God living.
241 I have just committed another faux pas by placing Husband first in the sentence. Equally so if I reverse the order.
242 Acts 19:13
243 Mark 14 :36
244 1 Jn 3:2-3
245 2 kings 5’: 17
246 In the jargon we are talking about the nature nurture debate.
247 If you were the only girl in the world : Dean Martin 1916
248 1 Samuel 15: 1 ff
249 1 Samuel 15: 22
250 I Peter 4: 10 -11
251 I kings 8 12-21.
252 Where it stayed for the best part of one-hundred years
253 Matthew 26: 41
254 2 Samuel 23: 11 ff
255 John 17 : 12
256 John 14 : 1-14
257 John 14: 12 & 19
258 John 15 : 1- 14
259 John 15:15
260 Luke 22:29
261 John 15: 18-27
262 Matthew 20:25-28
263 Luke 8:1
264 Luke 9:2
265 Matthew 28:18-20