Trained for the Kingdom, redux

I've been turning this verse over and over in my mind, and I realized this morning I forgot a few things in my last post. Namely, I forgot to actually apply some of those exegetical skills I spent so long acquiring. So here goes.

First let's look at this word "trained." This is one of those cases when it actually can be helpful to know the original language of a text. The word translated as "trained" here (μαθητυθείς) is the verbal side of the Greek noun that means "disciple." That's right: as in Jesus' twelve disciples. So what did it mean to be a disciple in first-century Israel?

Jesus' disciples are a pretty good place to start. As the Gospels record Jesus calling each disciple, they also note--sort of in the margins, sometimes--that each disciple simply left whatever they were doing, whatever career or profession they had, and just wandered around the country with Jesus. They left everything they had, including their futures, and traded it all on the kingdom of God. Turns out, they didn't even have a clue what they were getting into. But Jesus called them, and they came immediately. And that was the standard for discipleship at the time. Being called by a rabbi (a teacher) was a huge deal. It's recorded that many rabbis had followers--groupies--who hung around just hoping to be "called" into the rabbi's closer circle of teaching and mentoring.

So being "trained" isn't just about acquiring skills or going to school. It's about leaving your own hopes, dreams, present, and future to "seek first the kingdom" in everything you do and are. It's about putting all your eggs in one basket, everything you've got, and pursuing that avidly--and letting your new set of priorities inform and transform the lenses through which you see life, the activities you do, and the future you pursue.

Let's look at the rest of the phrase now. What we translate as "for" in English actually isn't a preposition in Greek at all. It's a noun with a special ending that tells the reader what part it plays in the sentence (for those who'd like to know, it's in the dative case). Even in English, "for" has a whole host of possible meanings, including "for the purpose of," "to the advantage of," "directed toward," etc. The dative case has a slightly broader range than that, but its range can be narrowed down just by what makes sense in that grammatical construction (sorry if I'm losing anyone!). Here, your options are: "for the benefit of/to the advantage of," "with reference to," "belonging to," "place of," "time when," "by means of," "because of," etc. Obviously, some of these don't fit. But the first two options really do fit: "to the advantage of" and "with reference to." So the "for" here is about studying and understanding things of the kingdom, and about doing what benefits God's kingdom.

But what is the kingdom of God? Granted, thousands of pages have been written on that question, but the heart of the answer has never changed. The kingdom of God is all about God being king. And how can you tell--with any king--where his kingdom is? It's where his ways, his laws, his person, are obeyed. God, in the person of Jesus, came to earth and inaugurated God's rule on earth. And where and how and in whom God is obeyed, there you will find God's kingdom on earth.

So what does all this mean? It means that training for the kingdom is all about devoting yourself to continually studying God, his words, and his ways. It's studying these things in light of God's kingdom, and strategically equipping yourself to grow the kingdom as God leads you to, inaugurating God's rule wherever you are and in whatever sphere you have influence. But most of all, it's immersing yourself in prayer with the intent to follow wherever God calls you and to know him personally, experientially, every bit like Jesus' disciples did so long ago.