Another passage in which the content of the term is virtually indicated by Jesus is the reply which He gave to the question of certain Pharisees. They asked Him when the kingdom of God should come, and He replied : ' The kingdom of God is in the midst of you' (Lk 17-'). That is to say, the kingdom is already present, already an accom- plished fact. It h.ad not come with outward .show and nnisc, but quietly and naturally. There seems
lo 1 nly one \v:i\ o'f understanding this remark-
ahle iiii,'i,',i,i e. foi the view that it refers to the future, anil ineaiis that the kingdom will come as a surprise, rests on the identification of the coming of the kingdom with tlie Parousia of the Son of Man (see Wernle, The Brginnwgs of Chrlslianity, i. 62). But this identification cannot be made, for the Parousia will have the very characteristic which Jesus here denies to the coming of the king- dom. It will be ' with observation ' (iierli. irapa- TvpM^m; see, e.g., Mk 13=^-2«---'). "VVe must hold, then, that the utterance of Jesus had a present force, and must find the justification of it in His own experience. He was conscious that the king- dom was realized in His own heart, and was to-
934 KINGDOJt OF GOD (OK HEAVEN) KINGDOM OF GOD (OR HEAVEN)
■;inniug to l>e lealizetl in His disciples. Thus this passable falls into line with those in which Jesus suggests that He meant by the terra ' kingdom of heaven' an inner spiritual fact, viz. the rule of God in the heart.*
Now these passages which have been considered present a conception of the kingdom of heaven which Jesus unquestionably entertained. That this conception was central in His usage, and must be called the fundamental content of the terra ' kingdom of heaven,' is seen from the following considerations, {a) It is the only explanation of a number of most important passages which is sug- gested by Je.sus Himself. (6) It is an explanation in perfect harmony with the other teaching of .lesus. For that teaching, as seen, for instance, in tlio Scniinn on the Mount, is inward and spiritual ; an. I -w\\ i< tlie thought of the 'kingdom of heaven' n- till- mil- of God in the heart of man. (c) The I'oiuth ( ;n-|Kl, with the exception of two passages (3'-'' is I. d"c- not employ the term 'kingdom of lieaven' . Im! tljo trrm which it does employ, where the Synii|itii^ h.nr -kingdom of heaven,' is the equivalent ot ■ kin-. lorn" in the sense of God's rule. This term is ■ eternal life.' That is the summum bonum in John, as the kingdom of heaven is in the early Gosi^els (Jn 4" S--' 6* 10^). This eternal life, like the kingdom of heaven, is bound up with the personality and mission of Jesus (4" 6='). Again, like the rule of God in the Synoptics, the gift of eternal life in John is both for the present and for the future (i^ 12^). Therefore we say that this early interpretation of the Gospel which we have in John helps to confirm the ^iew that the funda- mental conception of the term ' kingdom of heaven' in the mind of Jesus was the rule of God. {d) And, finally, the correctness of this view is established by the fact that, while the Synoptics use the term ' kingdom of heaven ' in various other senses, these are all secondary to the thought of God's rule, and are derived fi-om it. This will be shown in the next section.
i. Special iises of the term. — (a) There is a group of passages in which the term ' kingdom of heaven ' evidently denotes a company of men. This is the prominent thought of the expression when Jesus says that he who is least in the kingdom of lieaven is greater than John the Baptist (Mt 11"); also in the parables of the Tares and the Drag-net (1324-30. «-50)_ The tares are the sons of the evil one, and at the end of the present age they are to be gathered out of the kingdom. They are there- fore in the kingdom up to that time. To be gathered out of the kingdom means to be separated from the sons of the kingdom. The interest of the parable centres in the teaching that these two classes— tlie sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one— must remain intermingled until the end of tlie age. Hence it is obvious that the king- dom out of wliicli the ' stumbling-blocks ' are to be taken is the company of those who inwardly belong to God.
Now, while the foremost thought in these passages is that of a certain company of persons, these per- sons cannot be defined without the aid of the thought of God's rule. They are the persons who are under that rule, or at least claim to be under it.
(6) A second special use of the term ' kingdom of heaven' is presented in the parable of tlie Labourers in the Vineyard (21«). Jesus said to
the Jews at the close of the parable, 'The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth tlie fruits thereof.' In this case ' kingdom ' cannot mean the rule of God, for these Jews were hostile to this, and ob- viously it cannot iik-.mi tli..-.' wli.i are under the Divine rule. We tak it m i h. .nse of <Ac /tif/A privilcfir, and hlessij.ij -',-/, th J.ir.^ had enjotjcd as God'x peculiar /nnj'/' . It was these tilings wliich were actually taken from the Jews wlien the gospel of Jesus was freely proclaimed to the Gentries. Another passage which may well be assigned to the same category is the first Beati- tude (5'). The poor in spirit are blessed because 'theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' It is now theirs. They experience its blessing by virtue of the fact that they are poor in spirit. They will doubtless experience it in much larger measure in the future, but they have a foretaste of the experi- ence now. In like manner they who hungered after righteousness began to be ' filled ' by Jesus at once : the satisfaction of their longing was not deferred to a distant future. Again, as purity of heart brought a vision of God to Jesus, even in His earthly life, we cannot dou'ot that the promise of His beatitude for the pure in heart was a pro- mise not merely of a future good, but <Jf a good to be enjoyed in some measure here and now.