The Upside Down Kingdom

Years ago, I heard a speaker say that as believers we live in an upside-down kingdom. The kingdom of God has principles that are the total opposite of this wicked world system. Scriptures echoes this idea of an upside-down kingdom. God tells us He considers the wisdom of this world to be foolish; it is the polar opposite His wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:19). The world tells us that if we want to succeed, we must put ourselves first. In the upside-down kingdom we are told to imitate Christ and think of others more than we think of ourselves (Philippians 2), and that if we want to be great, we must be a servant (Matthew 20:26). The world tells us we must fight to live and hold on to our lives, the upside-down kingdom tells us we are to die to ourselves so that we can come alive in Christ (Romans 6)! And finally, the world tells us to do all we can to pursue comfort while the upside-down kingdom tells us to rejoice when we experience trials/discomfort because it will bring us to a point of maturity (James 1:2). Through what lenses are we living our life? What blueprint are we following-the world’s script or the word of God? If we truly understood what it meant to be a part of the kingdom of God, we wouldn’t fight as hard for the temporal, that which perishes. We would not be so filled with fear and worry. We would not insist on our own rights and the need to always be right. Take inventory of your actions and thought life. Do they confirm that you truly belong and embrace the principle of the upside-down kingdom, or do they prove otherwise? Simply put, we cannot claim to belong to Christ yet resist the principles of the upside-down kingdom.