Reflecting on Mark 1:15 – the Kingdom of God Has Arrived

“The time has come at last—the kingdom of God has arrived. You must change your hearts and minds and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15, Phillips).

The time has come at last. The waiting is over—the waiting along with its longing for what might be. That which we long for is now here. It is available for us to embrace.

The kingdom of God has arrived. The Greek word translated as “has arrived” means it is here, now, in our midst. It is something we can experience, something we can participate in, something we can be a part of.

The kingdom of God—life shaped by the character of God, patterned after the ways of God—life that is not dominated by the brokenness of life and its harshness—life that breaks free from the power of our default, anxiety-driven, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit—life that rises above the chaos caused by that self-serving spirit—God’s kind of life experienced as our reality here, now. The kingdom does not mean we escape our humanness or its struggles. Rather, through the work of the Spirit, it changes the nature of our humanness and how we deal with it.

These first two phrases in verse 15 invite us to embrace a different way of living in the present. It calls us beyond simply doing what the day (the schedule) demands while waiting and longing for something different, something more, something more fulfilling or meaningful or enjoyable or life-giving. It calls us to embrace the present moment and all it holds. It calls us to engage the people and the events of the day as the arena in which we can experience the kingdom that is here, now, in our midst.

The kingdom is here, now, in our midst. However, to recognize it and experience it requires change on our part. “You must change your hearts and minds”—we are accustomed to the familiar translation “repent.” The word in the original Greek means “to think with a different mind.”

Experiencing the kingdom that is here, now, in our midst requires a change of heart—that is, a change in the spirit out of which we live. We cannot experience the kingdom while living out of our inherent anxiety-driven, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit. Such a spirit blocks our ability to recognize the kingdom that is here, now, in our midst. It blocks our ability to experience it. This default spirit is at odds with the ways of the kingdom.

In addition, experiencing the kingdom that is here, now, in our midst requires a change in how we think. Thinking the way the world trained us to think—merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking with its us-them, compare and compete mentality—blinds us to the presence of the kingdom, keeping us from experiencing it. Experiencing the kingdom requires thinking that is shaped by the character of God and the ways of God—what the apostle Paul called the mind of Christ—thinking taught and guided by the Spirit.

“Believe the good news.” Changing our hearts and minds—repentance—is our response to the good news we hear. It is embracing the good news as truth. It is building our lives upon this new understanding—this new way of thinking and this new spirit. It is allowing our new understanding of spiritual truth to shape how we live and what we do. It is living by faith—a quiet confidence and settle assurance in the truth we have heard and embraced.

The kingdom is good news because it ushers in a different way of living—at least, in our lives when we believe. This new way of living is not based on self-effort with its trying-harder-to-do-better pattern. It is not based upon conforming to laws and moral standards and belief systems. It is not based on having to measure up. Rather, it involves living in glad dependency upon the Spirit who lives in us and is at work in us to transform us into the likeness of Christ.

Changing our hearts is part of the transformative work of the Spirit. Christ has broken the power of Sin in our lives, setting us free from its enslaving power (Romans 7:14-25). (Sin is that default, anxiety-driven, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit out of which we inherently live. It is Sin with a capital S. Sins—plural with a small s, i.e., behavior, wrongdoing—are the symptoms of this inner disease.) With the power of Sin—Sin with a capital S—broken, the Spirit is now at work to cleanse it from our hearts, infusing the servant spirit of Christ in its place. The Spirit empowers us to break free from our old sinful behaviors—sins, plural and with a lower case s—to break out of our old sinful patterns (Romans 8:12-13).

In addition, the Spirit is training us to think with the mind of Christ. The Spirit teaches us the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:6-16) by teaching us the things of God that Jesus taught (John 14:26, 16:12-15). The Spirit bears witness with our spirit regarding truth, moving us beyond the ways the world trained us to think into the deep spiritual truths that flow from the character of God.

Our response to the good news of the kingdom—which includes the Spirit’s transformative work—is to believe. That is, it is to open our lives to the Spirit and the Spirit’s work. It is to embrace the truths the Spirit teaches us so that our hearts and minds are changed, transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Because of the ministry of Jesus and through the continuing work of the Spirit in our lives today, the kingdom is here, now, in our midst. It is a reality we can experience; we can participate in; we can partake of today. That’s good news! It was good news in Jesus’s day. It’s still good news today!

The Emotional Component to Beliefs

 It seems we keep doing the same thing over and over again—even though it never works. According to Einstein, that’s the definition of insanity. It is especially common in religious life and during political seasons—like the election cycle we’re in now. We all do it, it seems.

We keep defaulting to simplistic, black-and-white, either-or thinking. We ignore the complexity found in any issue, reducing it to a simplistic either-or, right-or-wrong decision. Of course, we think our position is always the right position. Those of us who identify as Christians frequently use the Bible to validate our position as the “right” position and thereby the only acceptable position. “The Bible says!”

This kind of thinking and this way of approaching issues is seldom, if ever, helpful. It inevitably creates us-them divisions. It prevents the kind of dialogue that is necessary for mutual understanding and progress to be made. It is a barrier to learning and, thereby, to personal growth. It denies the value of diversity. It ignores the many ways we are alike while focusing on our differences. It is a barrier to cooperation and compromise. It denies the gifts and insights that others have to offer while stubbornly clinging to the way we already think. It fosters a rigidness that demands “my way” and ignores the common good. It, in short, keeps us stuck, trapped in meaningless standoffs.

Operating out of this kind of black-and-white, either-or thinking, we approach others with an adversarial spirit. We use arguments that support our position—often ignoring or discounting facts that challenge it. At the same time, we attack—often ridiculing—the other’s position. We even go so far as to attack and demean the other person. In this approach, there is no place for kindness. Respect is forgotten. The spirit of this approach is hard, at best, sometimes bordering on being mean.

Missing in this approach is any understanding of or recognition of the emotional component of beliefs. This emotional component underlies and drives our beliefs. It is what creates the inflexible, rigid posture that defends our beliefs against any perceived threat.

This emotional component is more than emotions—although fear is a common expression of it. The emotional component is tied to our sense of identity. Beliefs are a vital part of that sense of identity. They are a common way of establishing our sense of being “right” and thereby okay. They are a way of compensating for our innate sense of inadequacy and the haunting sense that we are not good enough. They are a way we seek to find a place to belong—i.e., those who think like us.

Anything that challenges our beliefs touches these deep-seated, emotional issues—fear of being inadequate and not measuring up, fear of not being good enough, fear of not being valued, fear of not being accepted and belonging. Anything that shows our beliefs to be wrong triggers these deep-seated fears. It threatens our sense of identity and our sense of being okay.

These same deep-seated fears reinforce our us-them thinking. How the other is different threatens our sense of being right and better than the other—i.e., our sense of identity.

Understanding and addressing this emotional component is the secret to moving beyond the polarization that divides us. It is the key to moving beyond black-and-white, either-or, right-and-wrong thinking.

How might embracing our identity as beloved children of God—an identity not tied to being “right” or being better than others—help us move beyond the emotionally-driven insanity of our black-and-white, either-or, right-and-wrong thinking? How might viewing others as beloved children of God help us move beyond the us-them polarization we use to compensate for our fear of being inadequate and not measuring up, our fear of not being good enough, our fear of not being valued, our fear of not being accepted and belonging?

It seems to me the teachings of Jesus speak to this emotional component that underlies our beliefs. Embracing his teachings just might free us from its enslaving power.

 

A Dangerous Game

It’s a dangerous game—one with devastating consequences spiritually. It’s one I’ve played. It’s one we’ve all played. It lies at the heart of and fuels our polarized political climate. During this election season, it’s one I catch myself playing even though I don’t want to play it. It’s one—if I could—I’d never play again.

I call the game “I’m right, you’re wrong.”

You know how the game is played. Pick an issue, any issue—moral, political, religious. We all take sides on the issue—some on one side, others on the opposite side. We can all argue why our position is the “right” position. As our position is the “right” position, the other position is naturally the “wrong” position. We can point out why that position is the “wrong” position.  

The game includes a subtle shift. The focus shifts from the position to the person holding the position. Since we are “right,” the other person is “wrong.” Sadly, this game in its most destructive version views the other person as ignorant—even depraved—eventually, evil—for believing what they do. “I’m right, you’re wrong” fuels “us-them” divisions in which we attack the other.

The game is built upon black-and-white, either-or thinking that ignores the subtleties, nuances, and many-shades-of-gray that are a part of any issue. No issue is as simple as either-or, right or wrong. If truth be told, the game doesn’t require any thinking at all. All that is required is listening for catch phrases that trigger angry reactions.

The game rides on fear—unrecognized fear of differences, of diversity, of those who are not like us, of thinking that challenges what we believe is true. It seeks to use certainty—i.e., black-and-white, either-or thinking—to calm the nebulous anxiety that lives just beyond the surface of our awareness.

The “I’m right, you’re wrong” game is foundational to our sense of identity—well, to our egocentric, constructed self. Our egocentric, constructed self is the persona we created based upon what the world (family, church, society) said we needed to be and do if we wanted to be accepted and valued. It is the persona we use to gain acceptance and belonging, value and significance in our social groups.

Because this persona is something we manufactured, it is fragile. We have to constantly reinforce it—through achievements and accomplishments, through recognition, accolades, and applause, through gaining status and standing, through having affluence, an abundance of things, and the status symbols affluence makes possible (neighborhood, house, car, adult toys, clothes, jewelry, etc.). One of the primary ways—if not the primary way—we prop up our fragile sense of self is by playing this game. By playing “I’m right, you’re wrong”—comparing and competing, criticizing, judging, and condemning—we unconsciously build ourselves up in our own eyes while putting the other person in a one-down position in relation to us. We need the “I’m right, you’re wrong” game in order to feel okay about ourselves. 

Therein lies a key danger of the game. It becomes a hindrance to ever discovering our true self—the person God created us to be. We substitute a persona we manufactured for the person God designed us to be. As a result, we live our lives endlessly striving for more. We never escape the comparing-and-competing mentality. We always see ourselves through the lens of what other people have.

This game is particularly dangerous when it is played with religious overtones—religious beliefs, religious practices, church involvement, “the Bible says,” moral issues. Reinforcing the “I’m right” posture with the God-card produces a closemindedness in one’s thinking and a rigidness in one’s position. The religious “I’m right” position cultivates spiritual arrogance that exists outside of the person’s awareness. This arrogance is seen in the criticizing, judging, and condemning that the person directs at others. If these outcomes were not enough, they are compounded by spiritual blindness. The person is not even aware of the spirit and attitudes that reside in their heart and surface in their criticisms, judging, and condemnations.

The ultimate danger of playing this religious “I’m right, you’re wrong” game is the person never knows the heart of God or experiences the gifts of God’s grace and forgiveness. Stuck in merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking and living, they are blind to the nature and character of God. They never learn or experience the grace-based ways of God.

How do we move beyond playing this “I’m right, you’re wrong” game that is so common to our human condition? We cultivate humility—the acute awareness that all that I am, that all that I understand is a gift of God’s grace. We cultivate a teachable spirit—the willingness to think, to learn, to grow beyond what I already think and believe. We work at listening, attempting to hear and understand the other’s position and what led them to it. We seek to understand the emotional components that led them to their belief? We refuse to argue. We respectfully state our position without attacking theirs. We refuse to play the game even when the other person baits us, attempting to engage us in it.

It is indeed a dangerous game to play—dangerous to our spiritual wellbeing.

The Heart of the Matter: the God Revealed in Scripture

Those who identify as Christians fall, for the most part, into two categories, regardless of their denominational affiliation. Which category is determined by how they view and use the Bible.

One group views the Bible as the divinely inspired Word of God. Thus, it is treated as the final authority on all issues. These Christians use such terms as “infallible” and “inerrant” to describe the Bible. The Bible is to be read literally because “it says what it means and means what it says.” The historical context and culture that gave birth to a particular text are unimportant as the truth of what the text says is just as applicable today as it was in the day it was first spoken. Reading the Bible this way, every verse carries the same authority as any other—at least in theory. These Christians commonly pick and choose which verses they emphasize, depending on the issue being discussed. They commonly proclaim “The Bible says” to validate their positions and beliefs.

This way of reading and using the Bible leads to clearly defined right-and-wrong positions on every issue. It fosters black-and-white thinking with either-or positions on the issue. This black-and-white, either-or thinking tends to be fixed and rigid as “biblical truth—that is, “God’s truth” —is nonnegotiable. “Right belief” is central in this version of Christianity.

Those who view and use the Bible this way proudly call themselves conservatives and evangelicals. Originally, this group called themselves fundamentalists. This identity was tied to their embrace of seven core truths that they referred to as the fundamentals of the faith. The first of those seven fundamentals was this view of the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. In the last half of the last century, these fundamentalists chose the name “evangelical” to replace the term “fundamentalist.”

Those who view and use the Bible this way refer to the other category of Christians as liberals. Members of this other group generally refer to themselves as progressives.

These so-called liberals or progressives hold differing views of the Bible. Many of them also hold the Bible in high regard but do not view it as infallible or inerrant. They acknowledge that it is divinely inspired while recognizing a human element in it. They identify within the Bible multiple understandings of God and how God interacts with the world—what today we call theologies. These multiple understandings reflect the cultural setting from which they came. Some of those understandings are at odds with other theologies in the Bible. Some actually challenge and contradict an earlier understanding. In the progressive’s way of thinking, all texts do not hold the same authority.

Progressives speak of Jesus—not the Bible—as the Word of God (John 1:1-18). Most view Jesus as the in-the-flesh expression of God who reveals to us what God is like while teaching us the ways of God (the kingdom). As such, Jesus is the final authority to which they turn. The Bible is read through the lens of Jesus. What does not align with the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus is viewed as culturally conditioned and therefore nonbinding in today’s culture.

This approach to scripture emphasizes the teachings of Jesus as opposed to beliefs about Jesus. Following Jesus’s teachings about God, it understands the nature of God to be self-giving, servant love. Such love is expressed in grace and forgiveness. It embraces all—without exception, without condition—as beloved children of God. It is expressed in a servant spirit that seeks the good and wholeness of each beloved child of God. This focus makes justice issues a greater priority than moral issues. It seeks to establish a loving and just society for all—i.e., the kingdom of God. Thus, “right living” or right relationships (orthopraxy) takes priority over “right belief” (orthodoxy).

This way of viewing and using the Bible calls for disciplined thinking that is informed by biblical scholarship. It is less rigid as it continually seeks additional insight and understanding.

In my mind, the heart of the matter is the God revealed in scripture, not the scripture itself. Scripture is a tool given to us that we might know God and the ways of God. The God revealed to us in Jesus the-word-made-flesh—as recorded in scripture—is what is most important. 

The Heart of the Matter: Transformation

The Hebrew Scriptures describe God as a God of steadfast, faithful love (Exodus 34:6-7). The Johannine community of the New Testament described God as a God of self-giving, other-centered love (1 John 4:7-10). Jesus and the apostle Paul knew God to be a God who lives out of a servant spirit. What would a God of self-giving, other-centered love desire for us? What would a God who lives out of a servant spirit seek to produce in our lives?

How we answer these questions shapes our understanding of the spiritual life as well as how we approach our spiritual journey.

The most common understanding—that proclaimed from the vast majority of pulpits on any given Sunday—focuses on our eternal destiny, i.e., heaven and hell. It is about escaping the condemnation and judgment we deserve because of our sins. In this understanding, God sent Jesus to die on the cross, taking on the punishment we deserve. Jesus’s death appeased God’s wrath, freeing God to forgive our sins.

While popular, this common understanding is not in harmony with the character of God or the teachings of scripture. Its fundamental flaw is its misunderstanding of the character of God. It views God as a God of wrath that must be appeased rather than the God of love Jesus proclaimed. This misunderstanding produces a second significant flaw: it is based upon merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking. It fails to understand that grace and forgiveness are how God—as a God of love—relates to us. This understanding centers God’s work solely on Jesus’s death on the cross, thereby ignoring his teachings and the significance of his resurrection. It is a Good Friday theology, not an Easter theology. At its core, it is me-oriented. It reflects a self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that leaves us essentially unchanged. Perhaps that fact is a part of its popularity and appeal.

Another popular understanding is called the prosperity gospel. In this theology, God works to make us successful as the world defines success—in terms of material wealth. According to this teaching, God—who wants us to be financially successful—blesses us with material wealth when we meet the right conditions. This theology mirrors the theology known as divine retribution that is found in portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. This theology teaches God rewards righteousness with health, wealth, long life, and a large family. In this thinking, poverty and sickness, early death and family problems are indicators of sin in one’s life. They are God’s judgment for the failure to live righteously. This thinking is also merit-based, deserving-oriented. It is transactional thinking—the kind of thinking found in the world—“if I will . . . then God will . . .” The book of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures was written to refute this way of thinking.

The scripture bears witness to God’s desire for us and what God seeks for us.

God wants us to know God and the ways of God. God sent the Son into the world that we might know what God is like—that is, the character of God and the ways of God (John 1:18; 14:9).

God wants us to live in relationship with God as beloved children. “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

God wants us to participate in God’s kind of life, possessing the divine character as our own (Romans 8:29), knowing the joy of living God’s ways (John 15:11).

God wants us to live as the followers of Jesus, learning and living the ways of God Jesus taught.

God wants us to grow spiritually into the likeness of Christ—“to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ”—(Ephesians 4:13; 2 Peter 3:18).

God is at work through the Spirit to set us free from the self-life that enslaves us, robbing us of life and wholeness—what Paul called “slavery to sin” (Romans 7:14-20; Galatians 5:16-25).

God is at work through the Spirit to transform our hearts and minds (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2), engraining the character of God in the core of our being so that the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me sin nature is rooted out.

Through the Spirit’s transforming work in our lives, we live as God’s partner in the Godhead’s eternal, redemptive purpose of restoring oneness to all of creation (Ephesians 1:3-14; 3:10; 4:1-7).

Any religious teaching or position or belief that does not center on the transformation of our hearts and minds into the likeness of Christ misses the essence of what God was doing in sending Jesus the Son into the world—i.e., salvation.

The Heart of the Matter: A Servant Spirit

The New Testament Johannine community identified the character of God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world (self-giving) so that we might live through him (other-centered). In this is love, not that we loved but that he loved us and sent his Son (self-giving) to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (other-centered)” (1 John 4:7-10).

That community’s understanding of the character of God was founded upon God’s self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 34:6-7) and upon the teachings of Jesus whom they viewed as the Son sent by God. The Son was sent that we might know God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.

The heart of God’s character, according to God’s self-revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai, is love—steadfast, faithful love. This love gave birth to Yahweh’s covenant with the nation of Israel (Exodus 34:10). It is God’s covenant love—chesed. God’s love for Israel was steadfast. It never waivered in spite of their failure to be faithful to the covenant. God’s love was faithful. God never gave up on or abandoned the people even when their unfaithfulness resulted in their experience of exile in Babylon. Even in that experience, God continued to work on their behalf, leading them into a deeper understanding of God’s nature and into a deeper understanding of who they were as the people of God. God was at work in ways they could not see—what the prophet to the exiles identified as a second exodus experience (Isaiah 43:16-21). God was at work to restore the nation in its homeland.

In this covenant love of Yahweh, Jesus saw the self-giving, other-centered love of God. He saw the servant nature in the heart of God and patterned his life after it. When his disciples argued about who among them was the greatest, Jesus taught them, “Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). In the world, greatness (status) is tied to position, power, and wealth, but in the kingdom, greatness is measured by the spirit out of which one lives—specifically, a servant spirit. Jesus himself embraced and embodied the servant spirit. “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).

The apostle Paul grasped this deep truth, urging the Philippian church to adopt the mind of Christ by embracing a servant spirit (Philippians 2:5-11). The author of 1 John urged the Johannine community members to love one another with God’s self-giving, other-centered love—i.e., relating to one another out of a servant spirit.

God’s self-giving, other-centered love is expressed in a servant spirit. Any religious position or belief that does not reflect a servant spirit that seeks the good of another is not of God.

Because God is love—self-giving, other-centered love—the heart of the matter is a servant spirit.

The Heart of the Matter: Grace and Forgiveness

The central, defining element in the character of God is love—covenant love, chesed (Exodus 34:6-7). God’s covenant love is steadfast and faithful. Steadfast means it never waivers. Faithful means God never gives up on or abandons those God loves. God abounds in—overflows with—this steadfast, faithful love. It extends to the thousandth generation—a Hebrew phrase meaning it is never ending.

Following this revelation recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament Johannine community also identified the essence of God’s nature as love—self-giving, other-centered love (1 John 4:8-10). God gives freely and sacrificially of self (self-giving) on behalf of the other (other-centered). Such love is expressed in a servant spirit—giving oneself without reservation to seek the wellbeing and wholeness of the other.

The heart of God is self-giving, servant love.

God’s character of steadfast, faithful love, of self-giving, servant love governs all that God does—including how God relates to us.

God relates to us out of who God is—that is, out of this self-giving, servant love. Consequently, God relates to us out of grace and forgiveness.

We humans naturally think in terms of merit—of what we deserve. Our merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking makes it difficult for us to grasp, much less embrace, grace and forgiveness. We struggle to grasp that merit—what we deserve—does not come into play in any way. How God relates to us is not based upon who we are or what we do or what we deserve. It is rooted in who God is. It is an expression of God’s character of self-giving, servant love.

Grace is unconditional love that is given freely and joyfully. It is pure gift.

Forgiveness is an expression of this unconditional love we call grace. It too is a gift. It is given to remove any barrier in the relationship—guilt, shame, fear, regret—created by our failure in the relationship. It allows the relationship to continue unhindered in spite of our failure (sin). (Read that again.) Because of God’s forgiveness, sin does not separate us from God (in spite of what we have been taught). It does not destroy the relationship. God refuses to let sin be a barrier in the relationship with us. Because of God’s steadfast, faithful love, God deals with our sin by forgiving it.

Forgiveness too is unconditional. It is not given if or when we repent. It is given freely, joyfully, lavishly because it is not about what we deserve. It is an expression of who God is—of God’s steadfast, faithful love. God’s unconditional love and gift of forgiveness are what give us the courage to face, acknowledge, and turn from (repent of) our sin. They allow us to turn to God for help (Hebrews 4:14-16). They allow us to learn from our failures so that we don’t repeat them. They allow us to grow spiritually. They lead us to grow more deeply in love with God and with who God is.

Jesus understood the unconditional nature of God’s love. He understood the unconditional nature of forgiveness. He repeatedly told people “Your sins are forgiven” because he understood that God had already forgiven them and their sins. In contrast to Jesus, the religious leaders of his time bartered forgiveness, making it a transaction. When the proper sacrifice was offered, then forgiveness would be proclaimed. This bartering of forgiveness indicated the religious leaders did not know the heart of God. It was an expression of merit-based thinking, not of the character of God.

Because God is love—steadfast, faithful love; self-giving, servant love—God relates to us out of grace and forgiveness. Any religious position or belief that is not an expression of God’s grace and forgiveness—that is, of God’s steadfast, faithful love, of God’s self-giving, servant love—is not of God. (If this statement is true, it calls into question how we commonly think about confession and repentance, about condemnation and judgment, about heaven and hell.)

Because God is love, grace and forgiveness are the heart of the matter.