Let’s talk about the Bible, fratres et sorores.
Luke 17:20-21 says,
20. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
This passage comes from the end of a big section of the Gospel of Luke that contains things Jesus taught on the way to Jerusalem, in the transition between his earlier Galilean ministry and the final road to his Crucifixion.
For the sake of context, verses 20-21 are the lead-in to a longer sermon about the coming kingdom:
22. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
23. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
24. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
31. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
32. Remember Lot’s wife.
33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
34. I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
What I really want to focus on, though, is that bombshell in verse 21: “for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you”.
So think about it, chew on it, put it in your gospel pipe and smoke it for awhile, and then come back and leave a comment about it. Feel free to let your theology hang out boldly, whatever kind of a dox it is. I’ve got a follow-up I’ll post once we get some ideas in the air.
Sailing to Byzantium 
I don’t have to think about this one too much because your brother and I were already talking about it earlier today. Given the vaguery of trying to interpret meanings from specific word choices when those words have been through a couple of translations, Jesus could be saying one (or more) of three things. He might be saying that the kingdom of god has already come, so the pharisees won’t see it come in the future (the kingdom of God is within you *right now*). He might be saying that the kingdom of God is made of up believers and isn’t a physical thing at all, or he might be saying that the kingdom is within each believer individually (and still isn’t a physical thing). Which he meant is probably impossible to guess. I personally don’t have strong feelings about the passage as I think the possible interpretations could each fit in with my personal theology and aren’t mutually exclusive, anyway. For the record, though, a peek at the Joseph Smith translation indicates that he favored the first interpretation.
My opinion on this is completely based on my own reasoning and UPG, and not based particularly on my study of the scriptures–Christian or otherwise. That “the kingdom of God is within you” describes something I believe to be the truth–that the god(s), as we know them, do not exist in a vacuum, their natures pre-defined and unaffected by those who worship them. I believe the divine has been shaped by the belief, love, and worship of those humans who worshiped them. In other words, God and Jesus did not exist in the shape we understand them now until man imagined them that way. Dionysos did not exist in the way we know him until the ancient Greeks imagined him in his full cultus. We continue to shape and redefine our gods with our beliefs and our questing towards divine “truth.” In return, the nature of divinity shapes the condition of man. Societies tend to reflect the values of their religions, and there is a reason for this. “As above, so below” might well be followed with the corollary of “as below, so above.”
I’ve also thought about this passage over the years, and the interpretation that resonates with me is that we each have to create the Kingdom in our own hearts by cultivating whatever that entails (traditional doctrine would probably say faith, but I lean more towards justice, compassion and mercy), and then externally by the way we live out our lives.
@A.J., are you a process thinker by any chance?
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Thanks for the comments; I’m still working on my follow-up post.
Anyone espousing a more orthodox flavor of Christianity want to chime in?
Playing the role of “typical Protestant”…
Not really, I’m way too liberal and squishy about things to count.
I’ve thought about this passage before, but I’m not sure I can articulate my thoughts without throwing stream-of-conscience garbage on the page. I’ll come back once I’ve let it marinate more, but…this strikes me as a good hook for my universalist leanings.
Whitney invited me to jump in on this discussion (thanks Sister!) so here it goes.
The NIV translation of Luke 17:21 says, “. . .because the Kingdom of God is in your midst.” Taking into the context of who he is speaking to in this sentance I agree more with this translation that the one above. He is addressing directly the Pharisees, who did not acknowledge that he was the savior they were waiting for whatsoever. He was basically saying, “Hey, I’m right here and you don’t even see it.”
However, since you asked specifically about the kingdom of God being within, there are other passages that support the idea that it is a heart-happening for individual Christ followers. Romans 8:11 says, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” In Ephesians 3:16-17 Paul wrote to the church in Ephesians, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. . .” The rest of the verse is speaking not only to the individual inner being, but also the church body as a group.
Thanks for yout comment, Alli. The within/among translation issue is one I definitely have thoughts on. Suffice to say it is one of the two reasons I quoted the KJV in the original post.
I’m influenced a lot by Brian McLaren on this. In The Secret Message of Jesus he basically argues that the Kingdom is wherever God’s will is being done — it is God moving in the world. This does NOT happen exclusively within Christianity. Our job is to find the corner of the Kingdom He’s prepared for us and get to work (I believe this speaks to Alli’s distinction about within/among).
Of course, perhaps the most important place where God’s will needs to be done is in the inner workings of the human heart. So by getting the Kingdom in us first, we are motivated to do the work of the Kingdom, and thus bring the will of God about in the world at large.
See, this is why I wait to say anything. So my sister and my sister-wife can explain things so nicely.
That was awkwardly phrased. The last thought should read: “and thus bring about the will of God in the world at large.”
Whitney: what else are sister-wives for? 🙂
Okay, one more thing: I think getting the Kingdom in you, so that you can help move the Kingdom forward in the rest of the world, is kind of *the point* of Christianity. Another similar metaphor is the Abrahamic Covenant: blessed so that we may bless others — not so that we can revel in our chosen-ness. Thus the Kingdom grows, like yeast in bread.
The phrase exemplifies a powerful innovation Jesus brought to Judaism. Understanding that the path to God is inside you, rather than outside you allows a persons spiritual life to sit apart from traditional practices and hierarchies that are far more difficult to translate across cultures.
Christianity is the largest and arguably most influential religion in the world, in part, because of this. It can spread easily because it teaches that the most important elements are already inside everyone.
Plus, the idea hits on the verifiable truth that the Divine can be felt from the inside, and that each person has their own door and their own key.
The definitive book of our age on “The Kingdom of God” is Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy”. I recommend it highly every chance I get.
Willard focuses on the teachings on Jesus in Matthew but they apply here as well. Whenever Jesus spoke about “the Kingdom” he spoke about something that’s time had come and was now obtainable. It was near, as it within reach. It’s not some far off place in the outer heavens, but instead is like the air around us.
I think you’ll notice the more modern translations, regardless of translation strategy, translate this passage as “the kingdom is in your midst”.
This deals with the nature of conciousness. We are all one and it is our subconcious we are trying to unravel. The matter lies in your head(in more ways than one). The kingdom of heaven can be found after careful searching. The signs of heaven are abundant when your eyes are opened.