Believer Kings

Today’s Christians are not very serious about the kingdom of God. To a great extent this is because they see it as spiritual work, the work of a few full-time pastors and missionaries. The kingdom of God, though, is both spiritual and physical. It deals with every aspect of life in this world, the physical realities of the present life as well as the religious. It embodies the Christian faith in its fullest sense; encompassing the functions now relegated to church and state. The latter institutions are secondary, the family, instituted by God prior to the Fall is primary. Man was created to live and be governed in families and not by the man-made institutions of church and state. When the Israelites requested a king to rule over them, God gave them their wish; but He also said that they had rejected Him (1 Sam. 8:7). He was their true King as Christ is our true King today. The people of God should not repeat the sin of Ancient Israel and live under any king but Jesus, whatever form that king might take, be it democracy or dictatorship. Jesus as King is king over both the spiritual and the civil government. He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). “All power” is all power. Heaven and earth includes both the civil and the spiritual realms.

How though, does Jesus reign in this world? He reigns through His body on earth. Christians are intended to reign as His kings and priests in this world (Rev. 1:6). Scripture tells us that: “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor.11:3). The Christian family head then is under Christ and Christ alone. He has no master on earth and Christ, his Lord holds him responsible for both the spiritual and physical well-being of the world around him. This is truly an awesome responsibility.

It is not so today but in God’s order of things, the state governs the civil realm only as public servants, the representatives of the people, the families. Likewise, local church congregations are to be ruled by the families through their elected elders (1 Tim. 3:1-15). The word translated church in Scripture is either a reference to the entire body of Christ or to a subset of the body (e.g. the church at Corinth or Ephesus); it never refers to a centralized institution. Its highest office is the local body of elected elders. The apostles were a unique body that was not perpetuated in the early years but even they did not rule over the local churches. The local churches were self-governed.

So it is the institution of the family that governs both church and state. Therefore, it is the family and not the institutions of church and state, that is the proper location of both spiritual and civil government. When the true believer grasps this concept and clearly sees that there is no one, no pastor, no magistrate, between him and his Lord and that his role is to represent the King of kings in both the civil and the spiritual orders, he will arouse himself from his former lethargy and respond with vigor. He will realize how important it is for him to prepare himself for the task he’s been given. He will spend time in serious study of God’s word, engage in discussions with his peers and begin to teach others of their responsibilities as well.

Being a Christian will begin to mean something it never did before, when He saw himself as merely a passive recipient of God’s grace. He is thankful that grace but now sees that God has also given him work and responsibility in this world. He doesn’t study just because he’s been told he should; he does it to prepare himself as God’s ordained man in this world. He realizes that he is only one voice among many but that doesn’t discourage him as it did before. He knows that he is God’s chosen instrument and that the effort he expends is not fruitless or wasted; it has a purpose and is a part of God’s overall plan to restore and perfect His creation.

Each family enlightened to these truths, man, wife and children will be endowed with purpose, God-given purpose that will override all else and become the dominant purpose in their lives, one that will grow with time as generation follows generation until one day, we will rejoice and declare that the “kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;  and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).