Growing up I learned the Lord’s prayer. When I thought of the words,“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, I assumed that referred to going to heaven someday.
While that is true, I have since learned that the Christian faith is not just about going to heaven some day, it’s about bringing heaven to earth.
Jesus came to establish his kingdom here on earth so it will spread through us like leaven until heaven permeates the entire earth.
What does this kingdom look like? The Bible describes God’s kingdom as three things: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (see Romans 14:17).
I can understand how God’s kingdom would be a place of “peace” and “joy” but what does it mean by “righteousness”?
Think of all things wrong being made right – things like injustice, inequality, racism, oppression, pollution, greed, poverty, destructive behavior… all being eliminated from the earth as personal lives, cities, and ultimately nations are transformed by God’s love and power. Imagine that!
This is our task: to see heaven on earth.
And we are to do that not by a political power grab but by becoming servants bringing heaven’s solutions to the people we encounter and the places we go every day. As more and more Christians live in this way, the movement will grow until the glory of God will fill the earth.
