Kingdom Principles

Kingdom Concept #5

Heaven because that Kingdom is a state; it is a country. For citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Bible is the nomos , the decreed established law of the Kingdom that we are pledged and obligated to obey. It is a mistake to think of the Bible as a religious book. It is not. The Bible is a legal book, a book of laws that God has estab lished and set forth in written form to define and protect His Kingdom as well as to protect, preserve, and deliver the entire community of mankind. The second Greek word for “law” in the New Testament is ethos , which means “custom.” Whenever we speak of something as being “customary,” we are speaking of ethos . God’s laws are supposed to be customary for us. It is supposed to be customary for us not to lie or steal or covet. It is supposed to be customary for us to forgive and to love our enemies as well as each other. Ethos is less formal than nomos . In fact, whereas nomos came to mean decreed, established law, ethos was used to describe unwritten law. The most powerful laws of all are the unwritten laws. In any culture, customs generally carry the social force of law even without formal legal establishment. And customs quite often have a greater influence on people’s behav ior than any formal laws that are on the books. God never intended to write down any of His laws for us. He did not want us to have to read in order to live. There was no written law in the garden of Eden, no written law for Abraham, no written law at all for God’s covenant people until the days of Moses. The King of Heaven’s intention was to write His laws on our hearts and in our minds so that no one would have to teach us. It was humanity’s rebellion and separation from God that made written law necessary. We needed something to restrain our baser nature and instincts and prevent us from destroying ourselves by uncontrolled selfishness, passion, and violence. The King’s goal has never changed. Despite mankind’s rebellion, His original purpose still stands:

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