2 Timothy 4:1 (ESV)
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to
judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
There is a three-fold foundation for Paul’s charge to Timothy to proclaim
the word, the omnipresence of God and Christ Jesus, the fact that Jesus will
judge the living and the dead, and the fact that Jesus will return and set up
his kingdom. I wrote about the first two foundations in earlier blogs. Jesus’s
appearing and his kingdom is the final foundation for Paul’s charge. It makes
me wonder how future kingdom oriented we are. There is a country western song
that says, “Lord I wanna go to Heaven, but I don't wanna go tonight.”[1] I fear that is the mindset of
too many believers. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. . .” but we
don’t want the kingdom to come tonight.
The early church was kingdom minded. They lived in anticipation of Jesus’s
return. They understood that this world is only temporary at best. Their goal
was not “Your Best Life Now.”[2] They were focused on the best
life coming. We can face difficulties now when we know that something better is
coming. We can sacrifice now when we know the kingdom is around the corner. We
can let go of the need to see everything, do everything, experience everything
when we know that this life is simply a broken version of God’s intention for
us. The kingdom is coming when all will be set right. How might it change us if
we lived in anticipation of the kingdom?
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