We Are Not Asked to Build the Kingdom of God

Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to "build the Kingdom of God" or to "expand it". Such talk is a failure to understand what the Kingdom is. And such a misunderstanding is likely what leads us to build empires in the name of God. From the examples of the first disciples, we are to:

- announce the Kingdom's arrival in Jesus (Acts 1, 8, 19, 20, 28)
- help people receive it, i.e. enter it (1 Cor. 6, Gal. 5, Heb 12, James 2)
- teach people to live in it (Matt. 5-7, Eph. 2, Col. 1)
- call them participate in God's rule by making their places of domain reflect God's dominion-- by loving and serving instead of dominating, by acting to end injustice, etc (1 Thess. 2, Rev. 5)
- look for the culmination of the Kingdom when Christ returns. (1 Cor. 15)

Until we understand it, all that we do "for the Kingdom" will degenerate into human Babel-building towers.