Martin Luther on The Kingdom of God

Martin Luther once said, “The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people, O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?” (Life Together pp. 17-18)

What a convicting statement by Luther.   How often do we always want to be around people like ourselves? To sit among the lilies and the roses as Luther says.  Make no mistake that we desperately need Christian community in an age of individualism, but if we are not willing to rub shoulders with the tax collectors and sinners how will we ever see the Kingdom of God advance? The answer is we will not. Can you imagine if Christ would have come to earth and only associated himself with others like himself?  He would have had no other person to commune with.   He is sinless and we are sinners; He is glorious and we are depraved; He is love, we are hate.  He would not have found anyone who was perfect like himself and thus could not have had any roses and lilies as it were.  If Christ would not have entered into the world and engaged sinners with the revealed truth from the Father, we would have all perished. He was, in the truest since the greatest missionary the world has ever known. He left the glory of heaven and dwelt among a fallen people who lived in a fallen creation. He walked among us and shared his life together with sinners. May we not be so arrogant and prideful to think we are any better than those without Christ. Apart from grace we are just like them. Let us not blaspheme or betray our Savior because we are only willing to be seen with devout people. Devout people killed Jesus! Let us instead be in the world not of the world and be missionaries like our Jesus who said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”…”For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” May we be reminded that men and women are perishing and their only hope is the gospel.  May it be advanced so that men everywhere will repent and put their faith in Jesus.