new church life: march / april 2014
is a revolutionary way of looking at it. It is a much more universal view and
it makes the Kingdom much more accessible right now. If we start to see the
Kingdom in us, and start to see it existing in other people, we see that the
Kingdom can be in anyone, anywhere, any time.
How does the Lord rule as a king in that kingdom within? Surely He
doesn’t rule like any earthly king. What are some things earthly kings do? They
make laws. They have the power to enforce their laws and, in combination
with judicial systems, to judge us. They fight wars and protect their citizens.
Are these things that the Lord does as king? Well, not in an earthly way. He
is not the one making earthly laws for us. He is not exercising power on earth
that we can see, at least not in any physical way. But the Lord does every single
one of these things that an earthly king does.
The Lord makes laws. The wonderful thing about the Lord’s laws is they only
really follow two simple principles: love of the Lord and love of the neighbor.
When Jesus was asked about the commandments, He said you should love the
Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Those are the
two commandments that everything else hangs on. He says all the Law and the
Prophets (everything in the Old Testament) are simply about those two things.
(See Matthew 22:37-40)
All of the Lord’s laws are about love. Everything He says is about love.
When we look at kings and ruling and laws, sometimes we separate those
things from love. In fact, we read earlier about the priestly function being
about love, and the kingly function being about truth, and how they tend to
be seen as somewhat separate. But that passage from True Christianity 114
went on to say they are both together in redemption. Love and truth are both
together in the work the Lord is doing for us all the time.
Sometimes it is hard to see how those things fit together. When we see
laws of truth, judgment and order, it is sometimes hard to see the love behind
them. In our church communities and in the world at large we are constantly
battling over truth and love and how they fit together. Well, they always fit
together.
There is no law that the Lord has ever made that isn’t about love. There
isn’t anything that the Lord has ever loved that doesn’t have His laws of order
that help bring it out. We are all created from love and for love. Everything the
Lord says is from love and for love. Love and truth are amazing in that they
are completely intertwined in all that they do. Seeing the Lord as King, then,
is seeing those laws of love and making them the ruling principles in our lives.
We need to make them the principles of life not simply because we have
to follow them to avoid the consequences but because they are the way we love
each other. The more we do what the Lord says, the more love is brought out
into the world. The Lord says He gives His commandments to us so our joy
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