THE KINGDOM PART 3
And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Luke 9:2
The word 'peace' is from 'eirene' meaning "a state of national tranquillity". What was the national tranquility of the kingdom of God?
A Kingdom isn't the same as a religion. Why didn't Jesus tell us to go and preach the religion of Heaven is at hand or the Church of God is at hand?
The word Religion, from 'threskeia', means esp. external, that which consists of ceremonies. What kind of ceremonies would those be? Singing, burning incense, sacrificing animals?
We see in James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world."
What does it mean to visit? How does it keep us unspotted from the world to bring flowers to the hospital?
"Visit" is from 'episkeptomai' which is not sending flowers but to "look after, care for."
In Acts 6:1 we see, "And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration."
There were plenty of welfare systems available to take care of widows and orphans. There were pagan temples set up for this benefit. They had been established by the benefactor Caesar and many others like Herod. There were 127 kings who established the pillars of the temple of Diana at Ephesus for this and other purposes. Offerings or sacrifices were legislated and enforced by the Roman courts presided over by the "gods" appointed by Caesar. Some of these temples were even established by Herod. These pagan temples were often Nicolaitan in nature and although they received free will offerings they also received funds and benefits from the state and were literally incorporated by the state.
They contained treasuries like that in the temple at Jerusalem and the power, prestige and profit of being a priest attracted men seeking power, prestige and profit. These administrators of the peoples sacrifice and welfare were masters at soothing the ego of the people, feeding their superstitions and seducing their offerings into the control of the preists and ministers.
The word 'thieves' here is 'kleptes' which means 'an embezzler, pilferer' which is what the ministers of Judea's social system were doing with their compelled offerings. In 78 BC the Pharisees, a political party, had an ordinance2 passed requiring the temple tax be paid or the matter was handed over to the appointed civil magistrates of Judea for enforcement by the right hand of government. Funds flowed into the government's temple whether it served the people or not. The freedom of choice had been removed through a social compact and by legislative enactment. Now with the top down appointment of the courts, new legislated statutes and the adulteration of the priestly office of the ministration of charity with the right hand of government enforcement, both served the people less and the people served the public servants more and more.
Jesus' Kingdom operated in a much different fashion.
So, where is our heart? Of course it is with Jesus who said for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The kingdom of heaven does not need to sign up for national health care nor purchase insurance from strangers it knows that it is a congregation of brothers who love one another.
They are their own insurance. How did that work in those days where plagues wiped out a third of the population in a little more than a decade?
The Christians had created their own system to care for the needs of their community. It had its own altars of charity upon which they gave their sacrifice and expressed their love for one another.
Although they occasionally gathered in large groups they were far more practical in their daily ministration. They assembled in smaller intimate groups interconnected by a vast network of closely chosen ministers much as Moses had done centuries earlier.
We have seen that "ouranos" can and is translated 'world' by Greek scholars in place of the word 'heaven'. There are five different words in the New Testament that are translated into the single English word 'world'. So, we must ask which 'world' is Jesus trying to keep us unspotted from?
It is the same world that his kingdom is not a part of. And it is the same world that we may live in but not be a part of.
What is that world, of which, we are not to be a part?
Peace on your house
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Gregory
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Join the Living Stones NetworkChrist preached a kingdom at hand that that loved its neighbor, did not exercise authority and operated upon the perfect love of liberty with faith, hope and charity.... Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:5
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2 Salome- Alexandra (about 78 BC), that the Pharisaical party, being then in power, had carried an enactment by which the Temple tribute was to be enforced at law. Alfred Edersheim's book The Temple.