The gospel holds the promise that through faith in Jesus Christ we are plucked from Satan’s kingdom and moved into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God exists on earth within those that have the Holy Spirit living within them, and in the eternal unseen domain of God’s children (Heaven). So, while on earth, as reborn children of God, we coexist in the same physical location as Satan and the humans without the Holy Spirit living in them like foreigners living in enemy territory.
After committing to Jesus, I was hit with this reality in a powerful way. God showed himself to me, the connection was intense, and I experienced the arrival of the Holy Spirit in my life, but I found myself living in an unchanged world still run by Satan and filled with lies, crookedness and all kinds of evil. The questions that started to swirl through my mind were: what am I to do now I have been saved but still living here? Will a target be on my back until I leave? How am I supposed to work alongside those blind to spiritual realities and under the sway of Satan’s antichrist spirit?
As I pondered these things my mind took me back to the beginning of the Bible: Genesis 3. Here we find the story of Adam and Eve partaking in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At the very least this means they started to have preferences for things and evaluations of them that were outside of God’s will. Regardless of how the fall of humanity actually unfolded, the meaning we can take from this is that we die when we pursue things that are not in line with God’s plan for our lives: to live in accordance with our desires without what God wants is to be the walking dead for we can never be the master of our own destiny, because when we turn from God Satan’s agenda fills the void.
What God wants for us is presented throughout the New Testament. Most Christians agree that the key command for us under the New Covenant is to accept Jesus as the Messiah: the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies that a priest-king would arrive to set us free from spiritual bondage. Throughout the four Gospels and the Book of Acts we also find clear reference to the importance of repentance and prayer to the Most High.
The question we are exploring here is: what next? Once reborn in Christ, what does it mean for us to live faithfully? For example, on what basis should we determine what occupation to pursue, whether to engage in a particular project, or which media to consume? In the following passages I will provide a range of scriptures from the New Testament that provide advice on daily living within the kingdom of God.
Christian Purpose
Starting with Christ himself, we find clear reference to the fact God wants us to talk about the gospel, and the truths within it. So, any decision, work or relationship that demands us having to hide what we believe or lie about it is not in line with kingdom living.
Matthew 5
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 10:27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
Moreover, we know from his Great Commission given before his ascension into Heaven that any time we are spreading the gospel and teaching people to obey Jesus’ commands we are doing as we should, and when we cower from this and act otherwise, we are going against God’s will for us.
Matthew 28
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
There is also clear reference to both the commands of Jesus, via the Sermon on the Mount, and in his example that whenever we seek to do what is right and are persecuted for this than we are on the right track. Jesus even tells us that we will be blessed by God for doing so (Matthew 5:10–11). We are also instructed to make peace (Matthew 5:9), but never by compromising what we know God demands of us. Whenever we stop performing the above actions out of fear of poverty or criticism, we know that we are on the wrong path for God promises us that He will provide what we need to keep performing His will on earth.
Matthew 6
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
A life dedicated to the storing of earthly wealth at the neglect of our kingdom duties goes against Jesus’ instruction to store up wealth in Heaven rather than on earth (Matthew 6:19–21). And finally, we should always aim to treat others how we wish to be treated (Matthew 7:12), so whenever we are placed in a situation where we are required to treat others in a way we wouldn’t want to be treated, we need to walk away and have faith God will provide for our needs.
None of this is easy though. I have found it hard to take the plunge and live by faith. It is tempting to hide away, not speak the truth, and go for security rather than what God is calling us to do. What makes it more difficult is that the world encourages us overall to do the exact opposite. It can be frightening to be something that the world looks down upon, or to pursue a path with less financial security. In doing so we will have to walk away from relationships with people that do not understand our choices and be willing to be called crazy by those caught up in the spirit of this world.
Faith in Action
In the second part of this essay, I feel it is important to address something that can cause a large amount of confusion and prevent believers from having the determination to live faithfully. This is the belief that we are not called to follow the life and commands of Jesus but only have faith in him as the crucified and resurrected Son of God that died for our sins. There are teachers who believe Jesus was preaching only to the historic bloodline Israelites, and Paul’s preaching applies to converted gentiles and hence we are to follow what Paul wrote, not the direct commands of Christ in the four Gospels. I do not read the Bible that way. I take Paul to be elaborating on the teachings of Jesus for an audience that was previously unfamiliar with the context in which Jesus emerged. For a different teaching was required for a people completely immersed in the Old Testament prophets and expecting a Messiah, to those who were being briefed into all of it in one short letter. In the following I will show how Paul’s teaching in Romans does not offer a different instruction than Jesus, and the teachings of both are relevant to all followers of Christ.
Paul starts the letter to the Romans by writing that faith will lead to a life of obedience (Romans 1:5), so while faith in Jesus leads to salvation, we are to continue living in faith, for this is how the righteous live, and such a way is revealed to us through the message of Jesus (Romans 1:16–17). However, what exactly does he mean? Because this is a letter to a group of believers and not an academic thesis, the argument is not laid out in a systematic form, but is sprinkled throughout the letter, which needs to be taken as a whole.
I interpret him to mean that living righteously means following the commands and life of Jesus. Firstly, Paul writes that those who die and have been reborn by the Holy Spirit, which lives in them, are part of the Body of Christ (Roman 8:9–11). We are, according to Paul, raised from the dead in Christ (Romans 6:3–7). Our actions as reborn believers should therefore begin to take on the form of Jesus’ commands and life, although imperfectly because unlike Jesus we still have a sin nature operating alongside our reborn spiritual self. This is what it means to be ‘conformed to the image of His Son’ (Romans 8:29).
An essential part of this entails doing what God wants of us. Paul tells us that as we were once captives to sin, we are now slaves of God. Our lives are now God’s, and we are to do as He wants us to do.
Romans 6
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
However, under the New Covenant, Jesus (his teachings and example) is the law, so we are not to follow the Israelites in the Old Testament who had an elaborate set of rules under the Old Covenant, for such laws are now ‘obsolete’ (Hebrews 8:13). This is why Paul follows Jesus’ teaching in condensing the new law to treating others how you wish to be treated.
Romans 13
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In addition to this, Paul emphasizes the importance to creating peace (Romans 14:19), and, like Jesus tells us, that we are to be living sacrifice to God:
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Taken as a whole, Romans clearly tells us that we are saved by faith, but such faith does to finish with the arrival of faith in Jesus as Messiah, but if genuine, will result in behavior that begins to conform to the life of Jesus and his teachings. Following Jesus, Paul summarized kingdom living as treating others how you wish to be treated, meaning that no reborn follower of Christ should be in an occupation or engaged in a lifestyle that treats people in a way that they would not want to be treated. We should also not be intentionally creating an environment of disharmony and war for its own sake. Yet, learning from the life and teachings of Jesus, doing and stating God’s message in this world will create animosity in some areas of life, as by being reborn in Christ we become a threat to those still living under Satan’s dominion, which is most of humanity.
Spiritual Gifts
Lastly, Paul points to the Holy Spirit as granting all those in the Body of Christ gifts in a specific area. Obviously, in giving us gifts God wants us to pursue them, and to hide them or not use them would not be in line with all the teachings presented above. We are to take stock of the gift God has given us and use this to expand his kingdom. The trap here is trying to be someone we are not and go into an area where we are not gifted, and in turn neglect the gift God has given us. This is tricky and takes prayer and will potentially involve giving up on previous perceptions we had of ourselves. Paul lists some of these gifts as: prophesying, serving others, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership and showing mercy (Romans 12:6–8).
As the above gifts are unaligned with today’s occupations and college courses, it will take some reflection to see how they apply to you. For example, you may bring kingdom values into a helping occupation (nursing or social work), or you may have a role teaching the gospel over the internet. You may be called to encourage people through writing, or to lead a large organization in a godly manner. You may be called to be a prophet, or work as a dentist to help those in pain and to use your extra savings to donate to a Ministry. No matter your calling, there will be times that we must all step away from secure or well-paying situations as the environments are pressing on us to act in a way that we know is at odds with the teachings of Jesus.