I know that plenty of other and better writers have examined what it means to be a Kingdom Christian, but I'm writing this as an exercise in self-examination as much as anything else.
I thought I'd just go through and list what Jesus said about it, gospel by gospel.
If I aspire to be a Kingdom Christian, I should:
- Repent (Matthew 3:2; 4:17)
- Be poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3)
- Prepare to be persecuted (Matthew 5:10)
- Be careful what I practice and preach (Matthew 5:19)
- Experience surpassing righteousness (Matthew 5:20)
- Pray for God's will to be done (Matthew 6:10)
- Do, not just say, what I believe (Matthew 7:21)
- Prepare to be in lots of good company (Matthew 8:11)
- Go. Preach. (Matthew 10:7)
- Recognize there will be greater folks than me in the kingdom (Matthew 11:11)
- Be forceful (Matthew 11:12)
- Be a uniter, not a divider (Matthew 12:25)
- Admit I may not know all the secrets (Matthew 13:11)
- Weed the enemy out of my heart (Matthew 13:23-34)
- Understand that a little goes a long way (Matthew 13:31-34)
- Realize the Kingdom is worth everything I have (Matthew 13:44-46)
- Avoid being a smelly, bad fish (Matthew 13:47-50)
- Treasure the old and the new (Matthew 13:52)
- Squelch ambition; value humility (Matthew 18:1-4)
- Accept mercy by showing mercy (Matthew 18:22-34)
- Examine my (gulp!) willingness to accept other things (Matthew 19:12)
- Again, be childlike (Matthew 19:14)
- Again, treasure true wealth (Matthew 19:23-24)
- Accept God's view of fairness (Matthew 20:1-16)
- Open doors rather than shutting them (Matthew 23:13)
- Keep watch; be prepared (Matthew 25:1-13)
- Invest my talents to yield results (Matthew 25:14-29)
- Anticipate the feast (Matthew 26:29)
Whew! I'm glad I framed this as a list and not a pop quiz.
I'm not sure I'd like my score.
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6 comments:
Score? No such word in scripture!
Imagine the exponential blessing if we asked God to enable us to practice one of His precepts each day of February.
Ooh, I like Jesse's moms suggestion. Except I think I'll pass on the perseuction....
Nice post brother Keith, I would like to make reference to it on my blog
Always need to be reminded on things that seems so simple but require all of who we are.
Great post. One question........would chapter 22 verses 37-39 qualify? :)
I love your paraphrased interpretation of the verses you listed, like "open doors rather than shutting them".
Keep on bloggin, brother!
Matthew 22:37-39 definitely would, and so would many others. I was just searching for phrases directly connected with kingdom living ... not intending to be exhaustive.
Then I'd have just another abbreviated annotated commentary on the Gospel of Matthew!
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