A story tells of artists who were asked to paint a picture of what they considered “peace.” One painted a picture of a lake in the mountains, while another painted a picture of a raging waterfall, with a bird almost in the spray serenely enjoying its nest. This illustration has been used as an example of Biblical peace. However, while our peace here on earth will be found in the midst of obstacles, there is an even higher form of peace that Christians will find when with Christ, that peace is a restoration of the sinless closeness to God that man enjoyed before the fall.

Forgiveness is essential to the Christian. “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:26) When we forgive someone, we give up our bitterness and our desire to get even. In our heart, we release the person who hurt us. “To forgive is to grant pardon without harboring resentment.” (American Heritage Dictionary) When we consider the entire scope of the Bible, we can realize that when we don’t forgive other people, we are the ones who are being “unfair.” This is because, due to our own sins, we owe a debt to God that all the offenses in the world will not be sufficient punishment for—we deserve every offense that people give to us, and it’s not “fair” at all for us to be upset about something that we truly deserved.

Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) It’s easy for us to think of serving mammon as trying to get rich; then the verse does not apply to us because “trying to get rich” seems like something for Bill Gates, or John Rockefeller, or Andrew Carnegie, not us—we feel that we’re just “making a living” or “working toward a goal.” And maybe we are.

This article is part of a series.

In the last article in this series, I discussed how religion was linked to the nation in Old Covenant Israel. The true religion was tied to Israel, and it was disadvantageous to be a Gentile. In the New Covenant, however, the true religion is decoupled from the state. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Paul is saying here that now the people of God no longer have a national identity; rather, they are distributed throughout the nations of the world. Their identity is in Christ instead of their country. “But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (Acts 10:35)

In my article Peace on Earth, I discussed Jesus’ words, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) Immediately after this pronouncement, He explains some of the division that His gospel would cause. “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.” (Matthew 10:35-36) Following this, He tells us the cost of Christianity.

This is the first article in a series on the Kingdom of God.

The “Lord’s Prayer” contains a beautiful expression of our desire for revival, both in our lives and in the church, when it says, “Thy kingdom come.” Revival is simply the time when we enter the kingdom of God, and revival continues as we continue to live in the kingdom. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The Pharisees hoped for a physical kingdom, a visible realm with government and territory. But Jesus explained that the true kingdom would not come this way. It would not be seen, but would consist of people whose lives God had quickened, people who had found revival.