Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Jesus stands bound before Pilate, accused of claiming a throne. He does not deny that He is a King. He denies where His kingdom comes from, and He points to His followers' empty hands as the proof.
What the Words Deny
Jesus makes two denials here, and they are not the same. One is about the kind of kingdom it is. The other is about where its power comes from. Older translations end the verse "not from hence" — that is, "not from here." The writers below use that wording.
F. B. HoleHe also affirmed that His kingdom was neither "of this world," nor "from hence." It does not carry the character or stamp of this world. It does not draw its authority and power from this place. Of course His kingdom draws all its authority and power from Heaven, and it carries the heavenly character. But instead of saying this in a positive way, He put the matter in a negative light. That quietly condemned and rejected this world and this place. It was a bold statement to make in the presence of the man who represented the greatest existing earthly power.
The Proof Standing in the Room
A worldly king with a real claim would have had men fighting for him. Jesus stood there as a prisoner instead, and that settled it.
J. N. DarbyThe Lord explains that His kingdom is not of this world. If it were, He would have made good His claims the way the world does. His presence as accused before Pilate was the proof of it. Jesus does not fail to confess openly that He is King, when Pilate asks Him. He will establish, later on, a power which nothing will be able to resist, but the time had not yet come.
Peter's Sword
Hours earlier one of His followers had tried to fight. Peter drew a sword in the garden and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest.
C. E. StuartNatural feeling, and a true love for his Master, prompted him to this act. But natural feeling is not always a safe guide. In this case it was not. God's work is not to be spread now by the sword. The Lord's kingdom is not "from hence," as He later told Pilate, so He did not ask His servants to fight for it. Long ago God's cause was advanced by the sword. The earthly people were concerned in that. Now there was the heavenly calling, and the kingdom of the heavens was not to be advanced by weapons of the flesh.
The Kingdom That Is Made of Truth
So what does this kingdom run on, if not force? One writer answers from what Jesus told Pilate next.
J. T. MawsonHe came to bear witness to the truth: to tell out what God is, in a world blinded and blighted by the devil's lie. He was the truth Himself. That is surely what He meant when He said, "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." His kingdom is truth, and there is no lie in it. To hear His voice means to obey the truth. To be in His kingdom means to be subject to Him. No one knows the truth who does not obey it.
How Christ's People Live Under Other Kings
Commentators press this verse hard on the believer's relation to the state. One notes that the moment Jesus refused to fight for was the best cause imaginable.
William J. LoweNever was there a more worthy, a more just cause to fight for than at that moment; but the Lord refuses it entirely on the ground of being a stranger in this world. If a Christian fights now it is to uphold the glory of the world that crucified his Lord; and it is a virtual denial of that word which tells us that our citizenship is in heaven.
Refusing to grasp at power is not the same as lawlessness. The same distance from the world's government produces careful obedience to it.
William KellySo in the meantime we should be all the more eager to submit to every human institution. That means not only the king as the highest authority, but also the governors he sends to deal justly with evildoers and to praise those who do well. Our proper interests are on high; but that is our duty for the Lord's sake.
"Not From Hence" Is Not "Never Here"
The verse denies a source, not a future. Writers are careful that this saying is not turned into a claim that earth will never come under Christ's rule.
J. N. DarbyDoes he mean to say that this world will not be made the kingdom of Christ? He knows this would be entirely contrary to Christian hope and faith. Then the question is its character, the source of its power. "It is not from hence": that I indeed believe.
One writer describes an offer the church accepted, and where it left her.
William KellySatan, as it were, repeated the offer to the church, and she at length accepted it. In seeking the glory of the world, she has sought honour where Satan is the prince... By and by His kingdom will be from here. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." And when it passes into His hands, the reign of Christians will begin.
Summary
- Source, not size. The denial is about origin and character. This kingdom carries no stamp of this world. It draws no authority from it.
- Source shown by silence. A bound prisoner with no army was His own evidence — if the kingdom came from here, men would have been fighting for it.
- Source rules the weapons. Peter's sword was love using the wrong tool; the heavenly calling is not advanced by weapons of the flesh.
- Source defines the entry. It is a kingdom of truth, and you are in it by hearing His voice and submitting to Him.
- Source sets the timing. "Not from hence" does not mean "never here." The world will yet be His. Until then His people obey rulers instead of grasping at thrones.