#the kingdom of GOD

[aressida]

a reminder.

[a-queer-seminarian]

“God’s kingdom in the preaching of Jesus refers not to postmortem destiny, not to our escape from this world into another one, but God’s sovereign rule coming ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ . . . Heaven, in the Bible, is not a future destiny but the other, hidden dimension of ordinary life—God’s dimension, if you like. God made heaven and earth; at the last he will remake both and join them together forever.”

- N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

[lettersfromgod]

▶️ "THE LORD'S DAY" (Thus Says The Lord Regarding The Kingdom of God): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bmwT7Rsw7n8&list=PLE8FlkxQPQkPHgZ2CISXAJx3vpxyJ9MCr&index=41

📖 Source: https://www.thevolumesoftruth.com/Words_To_Live_By:_Part_Two#The_Lord.E2.80.99s_Day

[reedreadsgreek]

1 Corinthians 6:9–11

9 ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἄδικοι θεοῦ βασιλείαν οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν; μὴ πλανᾶσθε· οὔτε πόρνοι οὔτε εἰδωλολάτραι οὔτε μοιχοὶ οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται 10 οὔτε κλέπται οὔτε πλεονέκται, οὐ μέθυσοι, οὐ λ��ίδοροι, οὐχ ἅρπαγες βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρονομήσουσιν. 11 καὶ ταῦτά τινες ἦτε· ἀλλʼ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλʼ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλʼ ἐδικαιώθητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν. 

My translation: 

9 Or do you not know that unrighteous ones will not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not led astray; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor soft ones nor males lying with one another 10 nor thieves nor greedy ones, not drunkards, not slanderers, not ravenous ones will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And these things some of you were; but you were washed, but you were made holy, but you were declared righteous in the name of the lord Yeshua the Anointed and in the breath of our God. 

Notes:

6:9–10

ὅτι introduces indirect discourse after a verb of cognition, the negated perfect οὐκ οἴδατε (from οἶδα; perf. form with pres. sense). 

κληρονομέω (18x) is, “I inherit”, from ἡ κληρονομία (14x) “inheritance” (cf. ὁ κληρονόμος, 15x, “heir”), itself from ὁ κλῆρος (11x) “lot” (used in deciding) + νέμω “I assign” (not in NT). The substantival adjective ἄδικοι (“unjust, unrighteous”; see note on v. 1; NIV: “wrongdoers”) is the direct object of the negated future οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν. θεοῦ is a descriptive genitive modifying βασιλείαν which is the direct object of the verb. 

The negated present imperative μὴ πλανᾶσθε (from πλανάω “I mislead, deceive”) denotes a prohibition to an action already in progress. 

The οὔτε ... οὔτε ... οὔτε construction is, “Neither ... nor ... nor ...” 

ὁ μοιχός (3x) is “adulterer”, from μοιχεύω (15x) “I commit adultery” (cf. ἡ μοιχεία, 3x, “adultery”).

The adjective μαλακός (4x) is, “soft” (so in the gospels) from ἡ μαλακία (3x) “softness” (in the sense of “infirmity”). Here it is figurative and means, “effeminate” (BDAG), referring to the passive male partner in a homosexual act. 

ὁ ἀρσενοκοίτης (2x) is, “a homosexual person”, from ἄρσην (9x) “male” + ἡ κοίτη (4x) “a bed, lying down” (note the two root words are found in in the LXX of Lev. 18:22, 20:13, et al). The term refers to the active male partner in a homosexual act. 

ὁ κλέπτης (16x) is, “thief”, from κλέπτω (13x), “I steal”. 

The series of plural substantives form a compound subject of the main verb κληρονομήσουσιν in verse 10: πόρνοι (“a sexually immoral person”; see note on 5:9), εἰδωλολάτραι (“idolater”; see note on 5:10), μοιχοὶ, μαλακοὶ, ἀρσενοκοῖται, κλέπται, πλεονέκται (“covetous”; see note on 5:11). 

Here the construction changes (“neither ... nor ... nor ... not ... not ...”) adding to the compound subject of κληρονομήσουσιν: μέθυσοι (“drunkard”; see note on 5:11), λοίδοροι (“reviler, slanderer”; see note on 5:11), ἅρπαγες (“swinder”; see note on 5:10). The ten substantives form the subject of the future κληρονομήσουσιν (from κληρονομέω “I inherit”; see note on v. 9). βασιλείαν, modified by descriptive genitive θεοῦ, is the direct object of the verb. ‘All of them are in apposition to ἄδικοι, an apposition which would seem quite natural to Greeks, who were accustomed to regard δικαιοσύνη as the sum-total of virtues, and therefore ἀδικία as the sum-total of vices’ (ICC). Paul ‘is not describing the qualifications required for an entrance examination; he is comparing habituated actions, which by definition can find no place in God’s reign for the welfare of all, with those qualities in accordance with which Christian believers need to be transformed if they belong authentically to God’s new creation in Christ’ (NIGTC). 

6:11 

The substantival near-demonstrative pronoun ταῦτά, referring to the ten substantives in verses 9–10, is the predicate nominative of the imperfect ἦτε (from εἰμί) and the indefinite pronoun τινες is the subject. With the second-person verb, τινες is translated, “some of you”. 

ἀπολούω (2x) is, “I wash away”, from ἁπό + λούω (5x) “I wash”. The preposition “away” does not translate into English in the passive, so, “I wash”. ἀπελούσασθε is an aorist middle, thus “you washed away [your sins]”, not “you were washed” as most translations read. 

ἀπελούσασθε and aorist passives ἡγιάσθητε (from ἁγιάζω “I make holy”) &  ἐδικαιώθητε (from δικαιόω “I justify”) are each preceeded by ἀλλά for emphasis, showing that the Corinthians are no longer marked by the behaviors that the pagans are. CGT takes ἡγιάσθητε to mean, “dedicated to a holy life.” BDAG says, ‘In the context of 1 Cor 6:11 ἐδικαιώθητε means you have become pure.’ Most translations: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” 

The preposition ἐν (twice) modifies all three above verbs instrumentally. ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (“in the name of the lord Jesus Christ”) has to do with an appeal to authority. καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν (“and in the Spirit of our God”) expands the agency of the three verbs.

[tabernacleheart]

You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to [genuinely] love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond [not with churlish indignation but] with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best— the sun to warm and the rain to nourish— to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. [God is calling you to a higher standard-- one of spiritual maturity, not immature pride!] In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re Kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

Matthew 5:43-48 MSG

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

It's Maundy Thursday. Below: Fra Angelico, Institution of the Eucharist (1441-42).

* * * *

I would insist the foundation of Jesus’ social program is what I will call non-idolatry, or the withdrawing of our enthrallment from all kingdoms except the Kingdom of God. This supports a much better agenda than feeling the need to attack things directly.

Nonattachment (freedom from loyalties to human-made, domination systems) is the best way I know of protecting people from religious zealotry or any kind of antagonistic thinking or behavior. There is nothing to be against. Just keep concentrating on the Big Thing you are for!

– Richard Rohr

+

"The Master is not trapped in opposites. His this is also a that. He sees that life becomes death and death becomes life, that right has a kernel of wrong within it and wrong a kernel of right, that the true turns into the false and the false into the true. He understands that nothing is absolute, that since every point of view depends on the viewer, affirmation and denial are equally beside the point. The place where the this and the that are not opposed to each other is called "the pivot of the Tao." 

When we find this pivot, we find ourselves at the center of the circle, and here we sit, serene, while Yes and No keep chasing each other around the circumference, endlessly. Mind can only create the qualities of good and bad by comparing. Remove the comparison, and there go the qualities. What remains is the pure unknown: ungraspable object, ungraspable subject, and the clear light of awareness streaming through. The pivot of the Tao is the mind free of its thoughts. It doesn't believe that this is a this or that that is a that. 

Let Yes and No sprint around the circumference toward a finish line that doesn't exist. How can they stop trying to win the argument of life until you stop? When you do, you realize that you were the only one running. Yes was you, No was you, the whole circumference, with its colored banners, its pom-pom girls and frenzied crowds - that was you as well. At the center, the eyes open and again it's the sweet morning of the world. There's nothing here to limit you, no one here to draw a circumference. In fact, there's no one here - not even you." 

- Stephen Mitchell :: The Second Book of the Tao

[Thanks Whiskey River]

[a-godman]

Being Glorified until the Lord is Transfigured in us at His Coming in His Kingdom

Praise the Lord, we are in the process of being glorified until the Lord is transfigured in us and His divinity saturates our humanity at the time of His coming in His kingdom! Hallelujah! At the time of the manifestation of the kingdom, our humanity will be glorified by the glorious divinity within us, for when the Lord comes back, He will not only come from the heavens but also from within us,…

[compassionmattersmost]

A Journey Into the Infinite: The Call to Awaken to Our True Nature

There is a voice that calls from deep within, faint yet steady, whispering to you through the silence of your heart: “The kingdom of God is within you.” You hear it in the stillness of the dawn, in the quiet moments when the world falls away. This voice is not far from you—it is not hidden in the heavens nor buried beneath the earth. It lives in the very breath you take, in the still center of…

[kdmiller55]

Jehovah-Gibbor Milchamah

1 The earth is the Lord‘s and the fullness thereof,     the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas     and established it upon the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?     And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,     who does not lift up his soul to what is false     and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will…

[scripture-pictures]

[kingdomliving]

Live Now

[godslovelive]

Check out our you tube page!!

[anastpaul]

Quote/s of the Day – 8 July– the Kingdom of Heaven

Quote/s of the Day – 8 July– Proverbs 31:10-31, Matthew 13:44-52 “Jesus said in parables:The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure,hidden in a field.” Matthew 13:44 “What is a man’s treasurebut the heaping up of profitsand the fruit of his toil?For, whatever a man sows,this too will he reap and each man’s gain,matches his toil and where delightand enjoyment are found,there the heart’s…

[reedreadsgreek]

1 Corinthians 4:20–21

20 οὐ γὰρ ἐν λόγῳ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλʼ ἐν δυνάμει. 21 τί θέλετε; ἐν ῥάβδῳ ἔλθω πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἢ ἐν ἀγάπῃ πνεύματί τε πραΰτητος 

My translation: 

20 for not in word is the kingdom of God but in power. 21 What do you will? Shall I come to you with a staff or with love and a breath of gentleness? 

Notes:

4:20 

The οὐ ... ἀλλά construction modifies an implied verb such as ἐστιν whose subject is ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ. What the preposition ἐν means depends on what verb is supplied (NASB: “does not consist in”; NIV, HCSB: “is not a matter of”; NET: “is not demonstrated in”; NRSV: “depends on”); we may simply take ἐν λόγῳ and ἐν δυνάμει to denote reference/respect. δύναμις here ‘derives its meaning from its contrast with λόγος, talk. Its central point is therefore the ability to carry a deed through effectively’ (NIGTC). 

4:21 

The interrogative pronoun τί is the direct object of the present θέλετε (from θέλω), literally, “What do you want?” (NET, HCSB). θέλετε may be rendered “prefer” when followed by a pair of alternatives (so NIV, NIGTC). 

The 2nd aorist subjunctive ἔλθω (from ἔρχομαι) is deliberative (“Shall I come ...”). The verb is modified by the spatial prepositional phrase πρὸς ὑμᾶς. 

ἡ ῥάβδος (12x) is, “rod, staff”, from ῥαπίζω (2x) “I strike with a rod” (cf. τό ῥάπισμα, 3x, “a strike, blow”). “Rod” connotes punishment (made explicit by NIV, NET: “a rod of discipline”). The preposition ἐν with ῥάβδῳ after ἔρχομαι above denotes accompaniment (“come with a rod”; Zerwick §116 calls this use ‘sociative’). 

The disjunctive conjunction ἢ (“or”) contrasts two possible manners in which Paul may conduct himself when he arrives again in Corinth. 

The prepositional phrase ἐν ἀγάπῃ again denotes accompaniment.  ἡ πραΰτης (11x) is, “gentleness” (most translations). The genitive πραΰτητος modifying πνεύματί (lit. “a spirit of gentleness”) is attributive (“a gentle spirit”, NIV). The postpositive conjunction τε introduces a second object of the preposition ἐν above.

[tabernacleheart]

Had ye believed in agnosticism ye would have believed in God, and had ye believed in God ye would have believed in agnosticism. Is not that paradoxical? Far from it; it is by keeping close company with Jesus Christ that we begin to know that God is unknowable, that He has kept some things wholly to Himself, that there is no searching of His understanding, and that He can only be knowable by condescension and by revelation. God is unknowable, but God has the power to make Himself known in the degree in which our capacity can receive Him. [Now] keep steadily in mind what the purpose of this meditation is, namely, to show that a right belief at the beginning [allows for such a capacity, and as it grows] compels a man to add to that belief everything that is kindred and cognate to its own quality and its own purpose... one belief necessitates another, [and] faith grows towards more faith in the degree in which it is originally true, intelligent, and sincerely held. [Thus] the great religion of the Bible takes into itself– by an absorption vindicated by fact and by spiritual righteousness– all that is true, beautiful, musical, benevolent, philanthropic; it will not allow one daisy to fall out of its lap, and it has accommodation enough for the planets. Know that your first faith is right, because you are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Yet] have we faith? The spirit of faith longs for more worlds for faith to conquer. Lord, increase our faith; give us vision after vision of Thy loveliness and Thy majesty, and give these visions to us, not in response to our vanity, intellectual or moral, but in response to an earnest desire to know somewhat more of the vastness of Thy kingdom, and the beneficence of Thine empire.

Joseph Parker

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

In every age and every generation men have envisioned some promised land. Plato envisioned it in his republic as a time when justice would reign throughout society and philosophers would become kings and kings philosophers. Karl Marx envisioned it as a classless society in which the proletariat would finally conquer the reign of the bourgeoisie; out of that idea came the slogan, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Bellamy, in Looking Backward, thought of it as a day when the inequalities of monopoly capitalism would pass away. Society would exist onthe basis of evenness of economic output. Christianity envisioned it as the Kingdom of God, a time when the will of God will reign supreme, and brotherhood, love, and right relationships will be the order of society. In every age and every generation men have dreamed of some promised land of fulfillment of freedom. Whether it was the right promised land or not, they dreamed of it. But in moving from some Egypt of slavery, whether in the intellectual, cultural or moral realm, toward some promised land, there is always the same temptation. Individuals will get bogged down in a particular mountain in a particular spot, and thereby become the victims of stagnant complacency. So, this afternoon, I would like to deal with three or four symbolic mountains that we have been in long enough-mountains that we must move out of if we are to go forward in our world and if civilization is to survive.

I think we have been in the mountain of moral and ethical relativism long enough. To dwell in this mountain has become something of a fad these days, so we have come to believe that morality is a matter of group consensus. We attempt to discover what is right by taking a sort of gallup poll of the majority opinion. Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right, and therefore we are caught in the clutches of conformity... In a sense, we are no longer concerned about the ten commandments-they are not too important. Everybody is busy, as I have said so often, trying to obey the eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not get caught." And so, according to this view, it is all right to lie with a bit of finesse. It's all right to exploit, but be a dignified exploiter. It's all right to even hate, but dress your hate up into garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. This type of moral and ethical relativism is sapping the very life's blood of the moral and spiritual life of our nation and our world. And I am convinced that if we are to be a great nation, and if we are to solve the problems of the world we must come out of this mountain. We have been in it too long. For if man fails to reorientate his life around moral and ethical values he may well destroy himself by the misuse of his own instrument.

—Martin Luther King Jr, "Keep Moving from this Mountain," Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, Apr 11, 1960

[h/t Scott Horton]