Chapter 4: Have You Made the Kingdom Commitments?
When foreigners desire to become citizens of the United States of America, they are required to take the following oath: "I hereby declare on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen, that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to the same, that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law, that I will perform non-combatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law, that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law, and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.
So help me, God." The United States, like most other governments, will not allow those who wish to become citizens to straddle the fence. Naturalized citizens can't claim that their loyalty and allegiance belong to the United States if they retain allegiance to some foreign government. Our government won't allow that. It wants undivided loyalty from any who apply for citizenship.
So it should come as no surprise that Jesus the King requires similar loyalty from those who wish to apply for citizenship in His kingdom. In fact, He demands an even greater degree of loyalty: "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple." The United States does not require persons to forsake all they have to become its citizens. But Jesus does. In His kingdom, there can be no divided loyalties. Jesus will not be relegated to a subservient role by anyone or anything. He requires all or nothing.
In fact, that's the very reason Jesus tells us to count the cost before deciding to join His kingdom. "For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it? Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" Jesus has no desire for us to start something we won't finish.
No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. If we truly understand the kingdom and grasp what it means, it will be more precious to us than anything we own. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
And again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who, when he has found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Actually, in times of war, even earthly governments expect their citizens to put loyalty to their country ahead of every other loyalty, including their own families. It sometimes happens in times of war that fathers and sons fight against each other and that soldiers kill their own brothers.
In fact, during war, earthly kingdoms expect their citizens to lay down their own lives if necessary for the good of their country. Any real government expects this type of loyalty from its citizens. Jesus expects no less. Why? Because His kingdom is a real kingdom. And unlike earthly kingdoms, the kingdom of God is always at war. As Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household." Jesus requires of His citizens the same level of loyalty, love, and commitment that fervent patriots give their countries during time of war, if not higher. Being a citizen of the kingdom of God is not fun and games. It's serious business.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. During World War II, the United States government rationed a large number of items. Rubber was the first to be rationed. Gasoline soon followed. Before long, the government began rationing sugar, coffee, meats, butter, canned goods, dried peas and beans, and a variety of other products. Eventually, the government rationed or restricted even such items as shoes and clothing.
Now, what would people have thought of a person who claimed to be a zealous patriot if he were caught stealing gasoline from a local refinery so that he wouldn't have to endure the inconvenience of wartime gasoline rationing? What if the same person broke numerous other wartime laws? Would anyone have called him a true patriot? Hardly. They would have called him a hypocrite, a fraud, and even a traitor. It's no different in Christ's kingdom.
Jesus has issued various laws and commandments, and all of His laws are wartime laws. When we break His laws, we show ourselves to be traitors. We show that we have no real love for our new country. We want to enjoy the benefits of living under His government, but we don't want to incur any hardships or inconveniences. Jesus sees right through any fake patriotism for His kingdom, any artificial love for Him. But you may have been told that there are no laws for Christians.
Many preachers say, "We no longer have commandments. That was under the Mosaic Law. We are under grace, not law." If that's the case, then please explain these statements of Jesus. "If you love me, keep my commandments. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He who does not love me does not keep my words. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abided in His love." We have no commandments, just grace, not according to Jesus. And His view is the only one that counts. Where there are no laws and no commandments, there is no kingdom. And where there is no kingdom, there is no Jesus.
Any theology or any hermeneutic system that nullifies the plain words of Jesus is not of Christ. Jesus didn't spend His last night before His death repeating over and over to His disciples that they must keep His commandments, only to tell them later that He actually doesn't have any commandments after all.
Near the end of His sermon on the mount, Jesus forewarned us, "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" So Jesus said He would reject any professing believer who practiced lawlessness. My dictionary defines lawless as not regulated by the authority of law.
Those who practice lawlessness are professing Christians who refuse either to recognize Jesus' laws or commandments or to live by them. Jesus concluded His sermon by saying, "Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall." Those words are straightforward, aren't they? The only way we can build on the rock is to do the things Jesus taught. If we don't do what He taught, we build on the sand. It's that simple.
So I find it unbelievable that we who profess to be Bible-believing Christians throw Jesus' words right back in His face and taunt Him by singing boldly on Sunday mornings. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne." The only passage in Scripture that speaks of building on the rock instead of on sinking sand is the passage we just read from the sermon on the mount. There Jesus made it absolutely clear that the only way we can build on the rock is to do what He preached in that sermon.
His grace is truly unchanging, but He extends it only to those who love and obey Him. Yet this popular hymn totally ignores the very words of Jesus and teaches instead that we build on the rock by simply trusting in Jesus' grace and righteousness to cover us, regardless of how we live. And guess who most professing Christians choose to believe? Jesus Himself. Or this hymn writer and others like him who preach a gospel of easy believism. Growing up in the '50s, I often heard talk about the American way.
The American way referred to the American set of values in contrast to the values of the communists. Among the American values is a strong belief in freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, due process of law, and elected representatives who are answerable to the people. Similarly, there is a kingdom way. Jesus' kingdom comes with its own special set of values. In the ensuing chapters, we will look at some of the kingdom laws based on these values.
Now, these kingdom values will seem upside down to most people. That's because many of them are the exact opposite of everyday human values. But the most important thing to remember about them is that kingdom values are rooted in eternity. And things take on entirely different characteristics when subjected to the light of eternity. It's similar to the changing characteristics of the chemical substance H2O at different temperatures.
When this substance is above 32 degrees Fahrenheit and below 212 degrees, we call it water. It's a liquid that will flow through a pipe. A person can drink it or swim through it. But below 32 degrees, H2O takes on entirely different characteristics. All of its properties are suddenly turned upside down. What you could formerly drink, you can now eat. What you could formerly swim through, you can now walk on. It's the same way with eternity.
Everything—possessions, talents, activities, and values—all take on entirely new characteristics when viewed through the eyes of eternity. The things that are a blessing from an earthly viewpoint often become a curse when seen through eternal eyes. In the kingdom, eternity isn't the main thing. It's the only thing. Everything else is ultimately irrelevant. And that's the whole reason why we should expect the laws and values of this kingdom to be different, to be revolutionary.
These are the laws and the values of eternity. Of course, they're different from those of the earth. Living and functioning in the kingdom of God requires a radical paradigm shift. The word paradigm basically means a model or pattern. It can also mean an overall concept or the sum total of our assumptions, enabling us to understand or misunderstand a particular event, a scenario, or life in general.
We make a paradigm shift when, after thinking the reality of something is one thing, we later discover it is something else. For example, one of the best-known paradigm shifts in science occurred when Copernicus postulated that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. Once scientists accepted Copernicus' heliocentric model, they had to shift many of their prior assumptions about the earth's movements.
Similarly, when Louis Pasteur and other scientists discovered that germs cause disease, they radically altered the practice of medicine. The writer Frank Koch gives an excellent example of a paradigm shift in a story related in Proceedings, the magazine of the United States Naval Institute. "Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell.
The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, 'Lights, bearing on the starboard bow. Is it steady or moving astern?' the captain called out. The lookout replied, 'Steady, Captain,' which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship. The captain then called to the signalman, 'Signal that ship. We are on a collision course.
Advise you change course 20 degrees.' Back came a signal, 'Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.' The captain said, 'Send. I'm a captain. Change course 20 degrees.' 'I'm a seaman. Second class,' came the reply. 'You had better change course 20 degrees.' By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, 'Send. I'm a battleship. Change course 20 degrees.' Back came the flashing message, 'I'm a lighthouse.
We changed course.' The paradigm shift that we must make in order to enter and remain in the kingdom is just that radical. As a new kingdom citizen, we discover that many things we thought were ships are actually lighthouses. If we are truly kingdom citizens, our whole worldview changes. I want to make one final comment before we take a look at some of the groundbreaking laws and upside-down values of the kingdom.
Most of us have heard these teachings of Jesus so many times that we have virtually become numb to what they actually say. The revolutionary teachings of Jesus have been reduced to clichés, trite sayings, and nice thoughts for the day. We talk about the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, and going the extra mile. Something nice to think about, but nothing to take too seriously or too literally.
In my Bible, the first seven verses of the sermon on the mount, i.e., the Beatitudes, are printed in poetic format, as though these were simply beautiful words not meant to be taken too seriously. Poetry? Jesus wasn't reciting poetry to the crowd that came to hear Him that day. He didn't want them to go home and talk about the beautiful words He had shared. No, He wanted to challenge them to the core of their very souls. He wanted to give them a new set of values and a new set of laws, together with a new life.
In the pages that follow, we're going to be looking at a handful of the new values and challenging laws of the kingdom. But we're not going to water them down or explain them away. We're going to take them straight on. Will Jesus' laws step on some of our toes? Most definitely.