104. Reign as Kings
1 Corinthians 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
The promise of reigning as kings is difficult to comprehend. What does it mean? God promises that we are kings and priest unto God. We can comprehend being priests, as that means we can bring people to God in our prayers and hold them before God to help them and meet their needs. We understand that we can influence the affairs of the world with our lives and our prayers. However, how do we act as reigning kings?
We do not have the authority to rule as kings over the world or over other people’s lives. That kind of ruling would have to be ruling as kings, magistrates, governors, legislators, and leaders within government. God grants legitimate ruling authority to the governing authorities in the Kingdom of the Left Hand: this is political. We also have reigning authority in certain worldly spheres, like parents in families, teachers in schools, employers in business, and various positions of authority within certain groups and organizations. Whatever authority we have in the world’s institutions should be exercised with the Wisdom and Grace of God for the good of people. In the visible world we must rule well within the bounds prescribed by God, and we should be careful not to step outside of our boundaries and usurp authority in places we do not belong.
However, in the spiritual Kingdom of the Right Hand we have reigned as kings and in that realm we should so rule. This kind of ruling involves preaching the Gospel, witnessing to Christ, doing good works, being kind to all, forgiving all who trespass upon us, loving one another, loving our enemies, and all such kinds of things that we do in our interactions with others. Serving, submitting, giving and other such humble activities don’t look kingly, but that is precisely how we rule both the self and other people. We learn to become kings over Sin, Death, the Devil, and all the spiritual forces that would rob us of life and joy. When we live in and spread the joy of the Lord and promote life and love we are reigning. We don’t see the reigning nor the results of such ruling power, For this reason we need to believe this promise that we are kings and lords, and we need to believe that reigning under the authority of love really does have a positive effect. We will see it in eternity. For the present we walk by faith; for now, we reign as kings.