Elder Buddy Abernathy examines the phrase “the kingdom of God,” highlighting the different meanings of the phrase when it used in various contexts in scripture. In Daniel 4:34, the phrase refers to the entire created universe. Elsewhere, as in Matthew 13, the kingdom of God in Christ’s parable of the wheat and tares identifies God’s people in the world. In other passages we learn that the kingdom of God, His dominion, is within us if His Spirit lives in us.
It is this final sense, the most narrow sense, that we find application for our lives. If God’s kingdom is within us, we should act in ways that distinguish us from the world–as the wheat is distinguishable from the tares, though mixed among them. It is the local church, where God’s children congregate, that should be the most visible manifestation of God’s kingdom in this world.
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