kingdom of Heaven Economy
and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 25: 31-46
It is not difficult to see these teachings being derived from and supporting the economy God already had presented in Eden, through Egypt, on the Journey, in the Promised Land. Jesus did bring one addition, though. With Israel, God worked with a group of people descended from a common ancestor, all living together in one place, whose calling was to live by the Law and Prophets so that God could bless them, so that all the other nations would see their blessed lives, and follow God. Isaiah 2: 1-5, Psalm 67 . Jesus adds to Israel in the Promised land as God’s one group to reach the nations, the kingdom, which covers the entire earth. The kingdom is everyone - Jews and everyone else - who produces the fruit of the kingdom. Matthew 21: 43 And Jesus tells us to go everywhere. Matthew 28: 18-20 Making disciples everywhere includes living in the economy God gives us.
We are invited to live in the kingdom. How do we apply these principles today?! I can’t say exactly. I will say that we ought to seek grace to understand and then to live out how these principles apply in our lives. This life is lived in community. It is not an individual task.
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