The kingdom of God does not come by the sword, it comes by the cross.
The kingdom of God does not come by killing, it comes by dying.
The kingdom of God does not come with vengeance, it comes with forgiveness.
If it comes by the sword (by some dude on a horse), it’s not the kingdom of God.
If it comes by killing (the way of Cain), it’s not the kingdom of God.
If it comes with vengeance (the way of the Beast), it’s not the kingdom of God.
By the way of the cross…
By self-sacrifice, by co-suffering love, and by radical forgiveness…
Is how the kingdom of God comes.
And it comes no other way.
If we lose sight of this, we will be blind to the kingdom of God. And if we’re blind to the kingdom of God, we will mistake something else as the kingdom of God.