May Your Kingdom come !

The Epistle to the Ephesians reveals to us the Church God has always planned to obtain.

Chapter 5 already shows us a glorious Church, without stain or wrinkle or anything like that, and that it will be holy and blameless. Chapter 6 follows with the Church’s practical work: spiritual warfare. In these verses, the Christian realizes that spiritual warfare is his responsibility—and the Church’s as well. His true enemies are not flesh and blood, but spiritual beings.

“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

However, Paul calls us to resist: he does not ask us to attack… spiritual warfare is defensive warfare, because Jesus has already won the victory! Our work here on earth is to remain in that victory; we are to stand firm, to realize that Christ has already conquered, and to place our trust in the Lord who desires to establish His Kingdom in our hearts!

In the Bible, the “Kingdom of God” on earth does not refer to a territory with borders, but to God’s reign: His will, His righteousness, and His life taking root wherever He is acknowledged as King.

The Kingdom is God reigning; it is the sphere in which His will is accomplished…

Jesus proclaims: “The Kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15).
In other words: with Him, God publicly takes His place again as King, and He calls people to repent and believe.

The Kingdom is already at work now when people submit to God, receive the Gospel, and the Spirit transforms lives. Jesus says that the Kingdom does not come “with observable signs,” but that it is “in your midst” (Luke 17:20–21).

In this context, Jesus is speaking to Pharisees who, overall, reject His authority. To say “the Kingdom is in your heart” to this group would be strange. But to say, “the Kingdom is already here, because the Messiah is in your midst, and you do not recognize Him,” fits the context perfectly.

The Kingdom is present in the person of Jesus (His words, His works, His authority), but it is invisible to those who seek it as a spectacle or as political power.

What does that mean for us?

The Kingdom begins wherever Christ is recognized and obeyed (faith, repentance, conversion, a transformed life).
But the complete fulfillment (perfect justice, the end of evil, visible rule over all creation) is still to come.

The world is still marked by evil, injustice, suffering, and death. But the Bible looks forward to a future fulfillment, when Christ returns and God’s reign will be visible, total, and final (see Revelation 11:15; 21–22).

How do we see the Kingdom “on earth” today?

We recognize it by its “fruits”:
— changed hearts (new birth, conversion, sanctification)
— a community living under Christ’s authority (the Church when it is faithful)
— justice, mercy, peace, and truth advancing wherever God is obeyed.

The Beatitudes already give the “color” of the Kingdom in Matthew 5.
And Jesus’ model prayer shows it clearly: “May Your Kingdom come; may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The Kingdom on earth, then, is the will of the King beginning to be lived out here below, while we await its full manifestation.

Franz