Main news for 26 October 2024

How many words are said has about the Kingdom of God. Certainly, Jesus, when explaining what it is, naturally used the words; but the very best definition of the Kingdom than He gave is, probably, when He says that it { the kingdom} is " amongst you ", when He Himself stood in the midst of them. Since then - words, words, words...

Very nice words. But the Kingdom isn’t in words, neither in its teaching. The dominion of God is in the heart of man, it is a living, efficient power, transforming the inside, filling man with light, joy, righteousness, peace, - and effusing into the world around, transforming it also. Look which changes took place in the human relationships during the last 2000years, which attitudes began obviously to be considered of inadmissible (slavery, various kind of discrimination), - behind all this stands a spiritual principle: the Kingdom of God is in the heart of men. Certainly, all this is still only the beginning of the transformation, we are still "spiritual pithecanthropus", but let's wipe our eyes and we shall see the action of this bright Divine power and therefore shall praise the Lord.

Continuing the conversation about the Kingdom, Paul again turns to the theme of poverty and true wisdom. Contrasting his own position with the position of those who occupied prominent places in the Corinthian church, the apostle again reminds the Christians of Corinth of what he had already said more than once both to them and to his other fellow believers: the Kingdom is not of this world, and therefore it cannot in any way triumph in our world, which has not yet been fully transformed, before its complete transformation at the end of time (vv. 8-14). And the point is not that Paul did not want to see the Corinthian Christians as they imagined themselves to be, but that before Christ's return this could be achieved only by rejecting that fullness of the Kingdom which, in a world not yet transformed to the end, is incompatible with any triumph.

The apostle reproaches no one; he only reminds the Corinthian church of certain fundamental things without which there can be no question of any life in the Kingdom (v. 14). And when he warns the Christians of Corinth that he can come to them not only with love, but also with rebuke ("with a rod," v. 21), the apostle's purpose is not at all a desire to shame or unmask anyone. It is simply that, seeing what is happening in the Corinthian church, Paul could not fail to understand that he would have to confront very serious spiritual problems, that many of the local church leaders are, in essence, not witnesses of Christ and the Kingdom at all and are leading their community in a completely wrong direction. He knows that these leaders have ceased to be witnesses and have become simply teachers, like those who in those days could be found in abundance in any rabbinic or philosophical school. And he knows that such teachers, whose whole strength lies in skillful command of speech, will inevitably retreat before the true power they cannot resist: the power of the Kingdom, which every true witness manifests (vv. 18-20).

What the apostle Paul speaks about is one of the most difficult and at the same time most necessary things in Christianity. From a worldly point of view, the path that the Lord Himself takes and to which He calls His disciples is the path of failure, the path of humiliation. “We have become a spectacle to the world”—the Greek text uses the word θέατρον, theater, spectacle: people who are watched with derision. Jesus, who was welcomed as the Messiah—scourged and crucified on a tree. Paul, the most learned of the Jews—weak and forever persecuted, constantly insulted by his own children. Peter, the head of the new religious community—crucified upside down... Is such a path not madness? The Christian’s place is in this company. This is difficult, because we so greatly desire honor, recognition of our merits, and, finally, well-being. Paul’s experience is important to us because, together with those to whom he writes, we can see the One for whose sake he endures all this. And then, in response to our consent to become refuse and a laughingstock to the world, we will hear the Creator’s words: “You are precious in My sight” (Isa 43:4).