Earthly Kingdom

The circumstances point to Pilate's question to Jesus, "are you the king of the Jews?" as being a sarcastic gibe. The entire throng chanting for his crucifixion is proof enough that he is not the kind of king Pilate would be familiar with. So what other motive than to mock Jesus would Pilate have to ask the question?


Jesus knows this but he answers Pilate's question as though it were sincere. “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

We also need to remember Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. It is easy for us to get caught up in things of the world because we live in bodies that belong to this realm.

We live here temporarily, but our king has given us a mission to accomplish before we go home (Ephesians 2:10; James 4:14; 2Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 4:1). The circumstances in our lives are our mission. If we are parents, our mission is to love them as Christ loves us. If we are single our mission is to be an example of the love of God to the world. If we have a job, our mission is to represent Christ in the work place. Whatever we do, we do in a manner that is worthy of our calling as God's representatives (1Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17,23).

We live in this world. We are not of this world.