Thoughts on John 18:35-37

Thoughts on John 18:35-37 by John W. Ritenbaugh

"Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” (36) Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.' (37) Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'"

Christ gives a clear distinction about Himself in these verses--that He is not really of this world. He further says that if His Kingdom were of this world, His servants would fight for Him. The implication is that because they are not of this world, they do not go to war because His Kingdom is not presently established on earth.

This presents us with a vivid example of "us and them." The basis of this is that a Christian's loyalty is elsewhere.

A true Christian sides with the spirit of truth that evidences God,, while the merely professing Christian sides with the world, claiming to know God and to worship God, but denying Him by his works.

God has given us a clear command to come out of this world (II Corinthians 6:17; Revelation 18:4), and He clarifies it with examples such as this. In Philippians 3:20, He says through the apostle Paul that our citizenship is in heaven, and anyone familiar with the Bible ought to understand the legal ramifications of that.

Not only that, we understand that His Kingdom is here only in spirit; it is not fully established as part of the earthly systems. The suggestion in verse 37 is that when it is fully established, if it were challenged, Christ's servants, true Christians, would go to war on its behalf.

Perhaps this is referring to an end-times altercation between God's forces and the forces of evil, but in the meantime, each of us must fight this very battle in our daily lives.

Every day, the enemy of our soul challenges our faith and our faithfulness to the Holy One and the tenets of His kingdom. Every day, we must fight that battle and overcome it in the strength of the holy spirit within us.