Then How Should We Live?

If Jesus is King, then how should we live as kingdom citizens?

I believe most would answer the question this way: If Jesus is King, then those who live in the kingdom ought to live as the King calls us to live—that is, as citizens of his radiant kingdom. Radiant kingdom citizens live under the King’s reign and live as the King asks us to live. Citizens of the kingdom look a lot like the King—loving, kind, selfless, and cruciform. When Jesus calls us to “be perfect” as the “heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48), he is calling us to live and love as the Father and Son live and love.

“If Jesus is King, we ought to look and act like him.”

Further, Paul implores the people of God to “be imitators of God” (1 Thess 2:14). We orient ourselves by the things the King is oriented toward. We lay down our lives just as the King laid down his life. We love those the King loves. We pursue those the King pursues—that is, we pursue the lost, broken, and hurting. We love them and lift them up, just as the King does. We show them the same hospitality Jesus shows. If Jesus is King, we ought to look and act like him.

My husband, Jeff, is quite the Mr. Fix It and is often seen with a tool in his hand. He rarely hires anyone to do anything. It took nearly nine years of marriage before Jeff allowed anyone other than himself to change the oil in one of our cars.

So when Caleb, our oldest son, was born, he watched his daddy fix everything. Caleb often follows his daddy around the house with a toy hammer or screwdriver, mimicking Jeff. Not too long ago Jeff was working underneath a car, so Caleb ran inside to grab his toolbox and began fixing his fire truck. Jeff decided to play along and prop up the fire truck for Caleb to get underneath. Caleb follows in the footsteps of his daddy so much that he is becoming just like his dad. I watch Caleb’s mannerisms, phrases, and actions and think, Wow, that is just like Jeff. Now, both of our boys imitate their father on a regular basis.

Whether Jeff was under the sink, on a ladder, raking the leaves, mowing the lawn, repairing the car, or wielding a hammer, the boys wanted to do what Jeff was doing. They wanted to be just like their daddy. The big idea? We imitate who or what we love and revere. The apostle Paul admonishes us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:1 NASB).

A strange thing begins to happen when we spend a significant amount of time around someone—especially when we admire them. We start to sound like them, act like them, and live like them. As citizens of the King’s radiant kingdom on earth, we are called to participate with God as God builds God’s radiant kingdom by imitation of and participation with the King.

PARTICIPATION WITH THE KING

When I was a teenager, Jesus absolutely saved me. I am confident that someday my broken body will be made new in the resurrection, and someday I will be a citizen of the new heaven and new earth. Jesus saved me as a teenager and continues to save me, but Jesus also calls me to more. Jesus calls me to participate with him. In other words, I don’t admire Jesus from a distance, and he isn’t a feel-good friend that I reach out to now and then. And my love for him isn’t merely an intellectual thing. All of God’s people are invited to participate in the divine life. Michael Gorman describes the life of participation with Christ:

The mode by which salvation is conveyed to the world is the preaching of this good news both in word and deed. And the mode by which that salvation is received is best described not as faith in the sense of intellectual assent but as faith in the sense of full participation, a comprehensive transformation of conviction, character, and communal affiliation. This is what it means to be “in Christ.” [1]

“God is at work redeeming all of creation, and our call is to partner with God in this work.”

As kingdom citizens who live under the reign and rule of King Jesus, we are to imitate the King and are called to participate with the King. Believing that King Jesus is at work in our world, kingdom citizens are called to partner and colabor in redeeming all of creation. We do this by living and loving as the King, which we do by participation. We participate in the life of Christ when we feed the hungry, visit the incarcerated, welcome the immigrant and orphan, give generously, welcome our neighbors to our table, work to dismantle systems of oppression, and serve our community. God is at work redeeming all of creation, and our call is to partner with God in this work.

tara

Tara Beth Leach is a pastor, preacher of the Word, and a writer. She speaks widely at conferences, retreats, and universities across America on Women in Ministry, Church Leadership, and the call to be a Radiant Witness. She is a pastor at Christ Church of Oak Brook in the western suburbs of Chicago. She previously served as senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (“PazNaz”) in Southern California. She is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University and Northern Theological Seminary. Tara Beth is the author of Emboldened, Radiant Church, and Forty Days on Being a Six. She has two beautiful and rambunctious sons, and has been married to the love of her life, Jeff, since 2006.