What is the Kingdom of God,

The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Kingdom of God is first, righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is honest, upright, straightforward dealings in the sight of God and men.

Righteousness is the exercising of mercy and kindness toward other people. Righteousness is a humble reliance on God in all that we do, in place of self-centeredness, self-reliance, self-seeking, self-vaunting, self-assertion.

Righteousness leads us into peace with God and peace with men. There is no peace whatever to the wicked. The wicked live in a barren, desolate, tense, frantic, joyless environment. The wicked continually seek to heap to themselves everything of value, of profit. When they succeed in so doing they die and leave it all to the righteous. Meanwhile, the righteous are enjoying the peace of the Lord.

Without peace there can be no joy. Righteousness and peace lead us to joy. Joy is that happy, glad state found only in the Kingdom of God, only among the righteous.

The wicked have "fun." Fun consists of the merry, heedless stimulation of the body. The difference between fun and joy is revealed when the saint is persecuted. The believer has no "fun" when he is locked up in prison for his faith. But the joy of the Lord is his portion.

The righteous leap for joy, not for fun, when they are persecuted, because the Glory of the Lord is resting on them and their future is radiant with the hope of immortality in the Presence of the King.

The Kingdom of God is first, righteousness; and after that, peace and joy—all in the Holy Spirit. Everything in the Kingdom depends on righteousness. There is no Kingdom of God apart from righteousness. Righteousness is given to us through Christ’s blood when first we are saved. Then, through the Holy Spirit, we begin to practice righteousness in our daily life.

It is impossible to practice fornication, lust, rage, covetousness, lying, stealing, envy, strife, foolishness, and remain in the Kingdom of God. This fact alone reveals to us that many of the churches of Christ are not in the Kingdom of God and have no part whatever in the Kingdom of God.

Where the Holy Spirit has produced righteous behaviour, the peace of God, the joy of Christ—that is the Kingdom of God.