August 14
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU / PART 1
-Luke 17:20,21 states, … And when He ( Jesus ) was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God
should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or,
lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you …
According to J. Preston Eby:
-"Some say that the correct translation should be: For the kingdom of God is "in your midst," or "among
you," meaning that the Kingdom was present in their midst in the person of Jesus, "among" them but not "within" them.
It cannot be denied—the Kingdom was indeed present among them in the very life of the Son of God, the King of glory!
But that is not the meaning of this passage. The clearest meaning of the Greek can always be ascertained by usage.
The way a word is used reveals its true meaning—the meaning that the Holy Spirit of inspiration puts upon
it, not the meaning our English translators give it. It is a thing of wonder—the Holy Spirit has faithfully, powerfully,
wisely and indisputably recorded for us the precise meaning of the word here translated "within". The Greek word is "ENTOS"
meaning simply, according to Strong's Concordance, "inside; within". The word is used in only one other place in the New Testament,
in Matthew 23:26. It is the Lord Jesus Himself that uses the word on both occasions, and notice what He says. "Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are
full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within ("entos") the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also." No one can argue that "ENTOS" means "in the midst" or "among" in this
place—it clearly means "within". "Within" is contrasted with the "outside" of the cup and platter and plainly speaks
of the pollution within the hearts of men, not in their midst or among them. The evil in men is not something
apart from them or outside of them but something rooted deeply in the inward nature." ( The Kingdom of God, J. Preston
Eby )
-If the Kingdom of God was in the Pharisees, how could they not see it or understand it? How could the Kingdom
of God be in the Pharisees? Is the Kingdom of God in every man? What is the Kingdom of God? What does it mean to “see”
the Kingdom of God? We will try to answer these questions in the coming days concerning the …
-KINGDOM OF GOD!-
