IS THE KINGDOM WITHIN YOU? (LUKE 17:21)

For years, the King James Version of this verse did not seem to ring true for me. When Jesus pronounced that “The Kingdom of God is within you,” it appeared to be a statement more suited on the lips of an Eastern spiritual guru before showing his followers which breathing exercises and chants to use in order to bring on this mystical state of mind. Then later I realized that not all translations rendered Jesus' words in this manner.

There are four possible translations of this verse, which is part of Jesus' reply to Pharisees asking him when the kingdom of God was coming. He says either (1) “The kingdom of God is among you” (NRSV, JB), (2) “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (RSV), (3) “The kingdom of God is within your grasp” (NEB), or (4) “The kingdom of God is within you” (KJV, NIV).

Elias states, “The exact meaning of entos hymon remains elusive.” But he defines three of the above options as follows:

    (1) The kingdom has come in the form of Jesus himself.

    (2) God's reign becomes reality within the community of Jesus and his disciples.

    (4) It is spiritually revealed to individual believers.

Porter likewise says, “these verses have no parallel in Mt., and are not easy to understand, since the expression within you is rather ambiguous; the Gk. entos is not the usual word that Luke uses for 'in the midst of (in fact it is found nowhere else in the Gospel).” He suggests definitions of Interpretation (3) with the alternative wordings “within your possession” or “within your reach.”

Interpretation #1

Pao and Schnabel feel that this favored interpretation “possibly echoes Isa. 45:14, 'God is among you,' if Jesus indeed emphasizes that the kingdom of God is closely related to his person, message, and activity.”

Brauch goes with this option and states “that the reign of God is present 'in their midst' in the person and work of Jesus...He is the paradigm for what the reign of God looks like in human life and relationships and institutions...” As other NT expressions of this idea, he cites Matthew 3:2; 4:23; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:18-21; and 11:20.

Interpretation #2

This understanding is practically identical to #1 so that, for example, it is hard to know which one Elias is expressing when he says, “Most likely, Jesus himself and the community of his disciples are seen as primary channels for God's dynamic reign in the world. However regardless of which of these understandings is correct, what Jesus announces here clearly shows that God's reign has already become manifest in the present.” But, he concludes, it still has a future component. (thus, the title of Ladd's book The Presence of the Future)

This idea of a present Kingdom which will have its culmination later on may also be reflected in a fact noted by Marshall, namely that there is some ambiguity regarding the verb tense of Jesus' comment. Is it present or future tense? Marshall cites Luke 11:20 as a parallel passage which indicates the present tense “in which case Jesus is saying that the working of God is already present in His ministry for those with eyes to see it.” On the other hand, Jesus next addresses a time in the future in which “God will suddenly intervene in history without any preliminary signs.”

Thus according to both #1 and #2, the present manifestation of the kingdom may not be as the Pharisees were envisioning:

“The kingdom is mysteriously and even quietly present in the ministry of Jesus, that is, in comparison with a revolutionary uprising or the arrival of the heavenly army.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

“What Jesus is saying is that, instead of looking for spectacular signs of the presence of a primarily political kingdom, the Pharisees ought to realize that the kingdom of God is in their midst now, in the person of Christ himself, and that faith in him is necessary for entrance into the kingdom.” (Hoekema)

Interpretation #3

If this is the intended meaning, then a possible parallel thought is expressed in Mark 12:34 where Jesustells a scribe who had approached him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Lane says concerning this statement that it was “deliberately ambiguous and was intended to provide reflection. The scribe's openness and humility before God exhibited a favorable disposition, while his enthusiastic approval of Jesus' teaching revealed an attraction toward the one through whom God had brought the Kingdom near to men in an eschatological and messianic perspective.”

The problem is that the Pharisees in Luke 17 could hardly be characterized in the same way as the sympathetic scribe in Mark 12.

Interpretation #4

The fourth option is probably the most unlikely for a couple of reasons. For one thing, “the kingdom was hardly within the Pharisees.” (Marshall) Additionally, he points out that “Jesus never elsewhere spoke of the kingdom as an inward, spiritual state of affairs.” Porter similarly says, “It is difficult to see how [it] can be the meaning here, since the words are addressed to Pharisees,” and Brauch rejects this interpretation for the same reason. Nonetheless, he presents two possible understandings of option #4 held by those who prefer it:

“In some Christian circles, Jesus' teaching here is understood of 'within' – referring to an inner spiritual reality, an awareness that the reign of God manifests itself in and through the moral core present in each being.” He cites Romans 2:15 as another expression of that thought.

“Other Christians...understand Jesus' teaching to point to the reality of the divine presence within individuals. They see the 'reign of God within' in terms of the guiding presence of God's Spirit within believers (cf. Jn 14:15-17), or in later Pauline terms, the indwelling Christ (Eph 3:17) who, as the risen Lord, reigns in believers' hearts (cf. Col 3:15)”