Kingdom Citizenship
What qualities is God looking for in those who will be citizens in His restored creation, those who will be with Him forever?
By JOHN LABEN
Read Time:
7 minutes
A recent article about God’s grace in Tidings magazine got me thinking about what God is looking for in the people who will populate the earth—those who will live with Him forever when His Kingdom fills the earth and sin and death are no more. Put another way, what qualities is God looking for in those who will be citizens in His restored creation, those who will be with Him forever?
We cannot be worthy of God’s grace or His love. We are not worthy to expect a place in the Kingdom of God. But we are recipients of God’s grace. This situation is not our doing. He tells Moses, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” (Exodus 33:19). Why has God chosen us? Why He loves us is an unanswerable question because it is by His grace, His call, and His choice.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you. (1 Thessalonians 1:4).1
Rather than ponder why God chose us, we should humbly acknowledge that God loves us and has graciously called us, and therefore, we should respond to God’s grace and love. How do we respond to God’s grace, and how do we respond to God’s love?
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5).
We are recipients of God’s grace and His love, not because of anything we are or anything we have done, but because He has chosen to be gracious and loving toward us. God’s grace and love offer us life with Him and His Son in His Kingdom. He offers life in His creation with the curse of sin removed. God expects a response and is looking for a response from us. God is seeking a people He would like to live with Him, to be citizens in His Kingdom, His eternal creation. What character traits does God want in the citizens of the Kingdom of God?
Our search should look for positive traits, not negative traits, for it is too easy to be negative and forget or ignore the positive. Paul points out to the Romans the wrong response to God’s grace:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2).
God looks for those who seek after Him and are steadfast and faithful in that search. He looks for those who seek unselfishly the best for others. But above all, first and foremost, God looks for those who love. Of all the traits God looks for, love is the utmost. Why? Because God is love (1 John 4:8), and God created us humans in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:27). We see the love of God in the character of His Son, our Lord Jesus. We are joined to Jesus in baptism. Jesus shows us God’s love in human form, so we must show love.
We Are Recipients of God’s Love
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5).
We should share this love with others.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35).
Love. Genuine love. Holding fast to what is good, loving each other with brotherly affection. (Romans 12:9, 10).
He has poured His love into our hearts, so we should share His love with others. John writes in his first letter, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God…. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:7, 11)
Paul writes to the Corinthians,
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
If we love, it is easy to show hospitality. If we love, it is easy to contribute to the needs of others. If we love, living in harmony with one another is easy. If we love, it is easy to live peacefully. If we love, it is easy to please others. If we love, it is easy to put the needs of others first.
Paul says it better:
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:9-16).
For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written,” The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” (Romans 15:3).
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32).
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8).
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12-17).
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech. (Titus 2:7-8).
How do we respond to God’s grace and love? Remember, God created humankind in His image and likeness. In Jesus, we see that image and likeness, as well as God’s character and glory. On Mount Sinai, Moses asks God, “Show me your ways,” and “show me your glory.” God responds, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim my name ‘the LORD.’” (Exodus 33:18-19).
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7).
Notice how God’s declaration of His character, His declaration of His name, is echoed in Paul’s description of the fruit of the spirit:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23).
How should we respond to God’s grace and love? He has brought us into His Son, our Lord Jesus, so we should strive to live a life after the example we see in Jesus. Our life, our lifestyle, should show we are in Jesus; thus, our life should strive to be fruitful and abounding with love.
As Peter exhorts us:
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8).
How should we respond to God’s love and grace? What qualities is God seeking in those He will bring into eternal fellowship with Him in His very good creation?
We could make a list of all the desirable character traits Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John mention. However, that could too quickly become a checklist involving the mind, not the heart. A checklist would miss what God is looking for. How could you make a checklist of love, faithfulness, or humility? God is looking for hearts that seek after Him, hearts that strive to emulate His Son and hearts that overflow with love for others and God. Hearts that ask the question:
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8).
If the first and second great commandments rule in our hearts and direct our thoughts, words, and deeds, our life will show our response to God’s mercy and love.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27).
Responding to God’s grace and love by loving Him with all our being, by seeking to come before Him every moment of our life, and by showing this love to all those around us, Peter tells us:
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8).
In responding to God’s mercy and love, may we be blessed to hear from our Lord:
Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of thy Lord (Matthew 25:21, 23).
John Laben,
Richmond-Petersburg Ecclesia, VA
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All Scriptural citations are taken from the English Standard Version unless specifically noted.