“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick or in prison, and come to You?
And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” – Matt. 25:34-40.
Relating with the Kingdom
In the Bible, there are four clear ways of relating with the Kingdom of God as taught by our dearest Lord Jesus. You have to seek it (Matt. 6:33; Col. 3:1); see it (Jn. 3:3); enter it (Jn. 3:5) and inherit it – (as in our opening text i.e. Matt. 25:34). Seeking the Kingdom (basically) has to do with desiring it. Seeing the Kingdom involves finding it or having a revelation of it.
Entering the Kingdom includes experiencing it practically.
What is inheriting the Kingdom?
But inheriting the Kingdom is enjoying it as if it’s your own. Wow! This is where all the resources of the Kingdom are at your unspoken desire and not just your beck and call because they desire you as belonging to you.
So, inheriting the Kingdom is the highest way of relating with the Kingdom, or having God’s Royalty, Rule and Realm. And you know, God’s Royalty has to do with His Person. His Rule encompasses what He has ordained for you practically. And His Realm involves tasting the atmosphere of Heaven on earth now. Hallelujah!
Why inherit the Kingdom?
Beloved, by inheriting the Kingdom, God wants you to practically enjoy His Person, Provisions and Pleasures, and not just have them. You know, you can have something and not enjoy it in everyday life, let alone in the future. This may be due to ignorance, ineptitude or lack of practical capacity, lack of appetite, mental or physical laziness etc.
So as a believer, you can seek, see and enterGod’s Kingdom and not enjoy it on earth as expected.
The future is built on the present
You know, nature teaches you to taste something first before consuming it. So on earth, you should ‘taste’the blessings of the Kingdom such as Kingdom peace, purity, power, prosperity, preservation, pleasures, passions, God’s Person or Presence etc – Heb. 6:5. This is in preparation for ‘eating’ it in the Kingdom-future.
So beloved, the extent to which you inherit or enjoy the Kingdom now will determine the extent to which you will inherit or enjoy it in the Kingdom-future. This is why your current life of rulership matters for tomorrows, and why things of the Kingdom are for this life now – Jn. 3:12-13.
How to inherit the Kingdom
So, in our opening text, our Lord Jesus said that we will inherit the Kingdom based on how we physically treat the least of His brethren now in this life. Therefore your physical practical conduct in this life is important to inheriting the Kingdom – Gal. 5:19-21.
The brethren of our Lord Jesus
The least of Jesus’ brethren refers to those who are far from or do not seem to be related to Him but are actually related to Him. This is the picture of all mankind.
Now, the treatment of Jesus’ least brethren by you (as by nations) is to be physical, basic and natural as in feeding the hungry, quenching thirst, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, visiting the sick and imprisoned.
Thus, the brethren or siblings of our Lord Jesus are firstly the Israelites – both in the Holy Land of Israel and the Diaspora. This is because, Salvation or Jesus is of the Jews and not of Samaritans and Gentiles – Jn. 4:22.
However, the least brethren of Jesus includes all of mankind since He came in the flesh like all humans, to be our High Priest – Heb. 2: 17, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God…”.
It is also believed that the brethren of our dearest Jesus also refers to the one hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish people who will be redeemed, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes – Rev. 7:1ff; 14:1ff.
Be that as it may, the least of the brethren of our sweet Jesus are generally all humans whom we should love practically in the six ways that our Lord described in our opening text namely: feeding the hungry, satisfying the thirsty, clothing the naked etc.
Ensuring physical human dignity in honour of Jesus
And beloved, if you study these six ways by which we can inherit or enjoy the Kingdom of God, you will see that they are to be done to needy mankind in order to uplift their physical dignity as humans or as people created in the image of our Father God.
Therefore, the six ways of inheriting the Kingdom teaches about people’s rights to the basic physical provisions of life on earth. This makes us understand that for Jesus’ Jewish brethren, their physical existence on their physical and is paramount to God. So is all the physical necessities needed for the basic dignity of all mankind.
Kingdom righteousness
My friend, this is because all humans have a physical body that at least has to belong to a physical place that God gave when He appointed the physical boundaries of people’s habitation as their homeland – Acts 17:26.
For example, there is Kingdomrighteousnessby which the Kingdom of Heaven recognizes the physical land of Israel as given by God to father Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and not Ishmael; although religious-righteousness (belonging to mankind) may dispute that.
Again, in Kingdom righteousness, Jerusalem is not to be divided – Ps. 122:3. Yes, the city of Jerusalem is built to be compact together. This is because when our dearest Jesus comes again in His Kingdom during the Millennial, Jerusalem will not be divided as a city. So, you must seek that Kingdom-status for Jerusalem even now.
Beloved, when you seek Kingdom-righteousness or what is right in terms of the Kingdom of God coming on the earth, all other physical things like food, drink, clothing etc things will be added to you – Matt. 6:33.
Now, Kingdom-righteousness may not seem practically right to mankind but it is the case before God. This is just as our righteousness by faith (in Jesus’ exchange of His righteousness for our sins on the Cross) is foolishness before mankind. But as Jesus’ believers, we should always seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is talking about Kingdom-righteousness. You know, Kingdom-righteousness is the way or system that seems wrong to a man but whose end is the way of life. It is just as religious-righteousness is the way or system that seems right to mankind, but whose end are the ways of death or separation from God– Prov. 14:12; 16:25.
You know, many people on earth are on the broad way of religious-righteousness. But you will be on the narrow way of seeking Kingdom-righteousness or Heavenly-standards to come on earth now, as in Heaven – Col. 3:1-3; Matt. 6:10; 7:13-14.
