Luke 17:21

Luke 17:21. Lo here! or, there! Men have no right to point to anything as a proof of the speedy coming of this kingdom. They can never know the definite time, though they should ever pray: ‘Thy kingdom come.'

The kingdom of God is within you, or, ‘in the midst of you.' A future coming of the kingdom of God is referred to throughout, and it is implied that the second coming of Christ, the King, coincides with this coming of the kingdom. But here our Lord declares that the kingdom of God was already among them, for the King was present and working among them. This implies to a certain extent the other meaning: ‘within you,' so far as its presence among them involved the personal duty of each one to reject or accept it in his heart. Some suppose the meaning to be: the kingdom of God is an internal, spiritual matter. But our Lord goes on to speak of this coming as an external phenomenon. The crowning objection is, that the words were spoken to the Pharisees, in whose hearts this kingdom had no spiritual presence. Godet thus combines the two: ‘Humanity must be prepared for the new external and divine state of things by a spiritual work wrought in the depths of the heart; and it is this internal advent which Jesus thinks good to put first in relief before such interlocutors.'