KINGDOM THINKING – Part 14
Romans 14:9 “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”
Kingdom thinking will lead us to help equip saints to serve in our cities as the salt and light that Jesus told us to be; to be like Daniel or Joseph who not only prospered, but held significant leadership roles in a very pagan society for the glory of the Lord.
We might not be in a place like Daniel or Joseph; that is in what we might think is a significant role, but the place where the Lord has put us is just as important. It all matters to God. As Hugh Whelchel explains in his book How Then Should We Work?:
“We understand that it is God, through his providence, who is establishing his Kingdom here on earth. Yet this does not imply that we lack responsibility for the part God has called us to play. Much of what God accomplishes, he does through secondary means, and frequently his people are those secondary means.”
Except for those that are called to special office mentioned in Ephesians 4, most of God’s people will be in the secular work place. This is important for us to see and is important in kingdom thinking. It is in this work place, as we demonstrate kingdom principles that the kingdom of God will spread.
An editor of Christianity Today, Carl Henry, once called on Christians not to restrict the Christian life to evangelism alone, but also to engage the culture in the public square. What we are to do is pursue the ‘common good.’
Dr. Jay Richards, in talking about Jeremiah 29, uses the term “shalom” for pursing the common good. “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.'” Jeremiah 29:4-7
“Shalom” means more than just peace, as Richards brings out, but “…the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight…..Shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts are fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”
One avenue that God has given us to spread “shalom” is through our vocations. When we come to Christ we are new creatures and when we begin to seek first the Kingdom of God we will see an impact being made around us as we seek to glorify the Lord.
One area where I see a need for Christians to be involved for the common good is in the area of economics. When I look at the economics that we have today, especially in the West, it is a mess. I was writing to a friend of mine about the creation of Federal Reserve Bank here in the USA in 1913. One hundred years later (2013) our dollar has lost value until it is now worth two cents on the dollar. We have seen one of the greatest transfers of wealth in the history of mankind. Has this been for the ‘common’ good? I do not think so.
We are to be concerned about the orphans, the poor, the handicapped, the widows, etc. This is not necessarily the government’s job, but for those who have been born again and have become new creatures who want to see shalom in their society. We might be in the government, or education, or the media, or digging ditches, but where ever we are we are to be pursuing the common good of people: shalom.
We are to be the hands and feet of Christ here on earth. Some will be called to the political part of the world, or to the economic part, or to education or medicine, but those that are called will need to see how to apply Biblical principles to all areas of life in the world today.