Citizens of the Kingdom

You are a citizen of a kingdom, not an island affecting only yourself.

There was a time, not that long ago, when news traveled slowly. That time is no more. Now we are inundated with information almost instantly about anything that happens anywhere in our world. It drives home the very real nature of our global environment. And, it reaffirms the validity of Paul’s statement: “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself” (Romans 14:7). Truly, each of us is a citizen of one kingdom or another.

John Donne may have been thinking of that very passage when he wrote: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

In the sixteenth century Francis Bacon observed: “If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.” We would do well to remember our interconnectedness!

The premise of the Bible is that we share a common origin, and thus a common ancestry. We are all the offspring of God. One blood flows through all our veins (Acts 17:24-29). We may live in different parts of the world, speak different languages, and differ in color and size, but we are still one family, one humanity.

However, though we are one humanity, sin divided God’s creation. Christ came to repaire and reunite it in a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). The Scriptures do not call us to embrace a one world government and be a citizen of a single earthly kingdom, but they do call us to be an active citizen in the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ (John 18:36). That kingdom knows no borders, in space or time. It is a brotherhood of believers sent forth to conquer, not with the sword, but with the sword of the Spirit – the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). The battle of today is for the hearts and minds of men. Truth is our only weapon. Satan our only enemy! Victory in Christ our certain end!

Are you a citizen in the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Are you part of the brotherhood of believers? Are you wielding the sword of the Spirit in the fight for the hearts of men? Salvation is in Christ’s kingdom and nowhere else. It is for those who choose to be a citizen, and no one else. Where do you choose to be a citizen?

Salvation:  Hear - Believe - Repent - Confess - Be Baptized - Live Faithfully