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“The Apostle Paul often speaks of the Kingdom of God, not dispensationally but
morally, e.g., in Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20, but never so of the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘God’
is not the equivalent of ‘the heavens.’ He is everywhere and above all dispensations,
whereas ‘the heavens’ are distinguished from the earth, until the Kingdom comes in
judgment and power and glory (Rev. 11:15,
RV
) when rule in heaven and on earth will be
one.
“While, then, the sphere of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are at
times identical, yet the one term cannot be used indiscriminately for the other. In the
‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (32 times in Matt.), heaven is in antithesis to earth, and the phrase
is limited to the Kingdom in its earthly aspect for the time being, and is used only
dispensationally and in connection with Israel. In the ‘Kingdom of God’, in its broader
aspect, God is in antithesis to ‘man’ or ‘the world,’ and the term signifies the entire
sphere of God’s rule and action in relation to the world. It has a moral and spiritual force
and is a general term for the Kingdom at any time. The Kingdom of Heaven is always the
Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of God is not limited to the Kingdom of Heaven, until
in their final form, they become identical, e.g., Rev. 11:15,
RV
; John 3:5; Rev. 12:10.”
(
*
,@
).
For
KINSFOLK and KINSMAN
see
KIN
KISS (Noun and Verb)
A. Noun.
(
&
, 5370), “a kiss” (akin to B), Luke 7:45; 22:48, was a token of
Christian brotherhood, whether by way of welcome or farewell, “a holy kiss,” Rom.
16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26, “holy” (
), as free from anything
inconsistent with their calling as saints (
); “a kiss of love,” 1 Pet. 5:14. There was
to be an absence of formality and hypocrisy, a freedom from prejudice arising from social
distinctions, from discrimination against the poor, from partiality towards the well-to-do.
In the churches masters and servants would thus salute one another without any attitude
of condescension on the one part or disrespect on the other. The “kiss” took place thus
between persons of the same sex. In the “Apostolic Constitutions,” a writing compiled in
the 4th century, A.D., there is a reference to the custom whereby men sat on one side of
the room where a meeting was held and women on the other side of the room (as is
frequently the case still in parts of Europe and Asia), and the men are bidden to salute the
men, and the women the women, with “the kiss of the Lord.”¶
B. Verbs.
1.
(
!
, 5368), “to love,” signifies “to kiss,” in Matt. 26:48; Mark 14:44;
Luke 22:47.
2.
(
!
, 2705) denotes “to kiss fervently” (
, intensive, and No.
1); the stronger force of this verb has been called in question, but the change from
to
in Matt. 26:49 and Mark 14:45 can scarcely be without significance, and
the act of the traitor was almost certainly more demonstrative than the simple kiss of
salutation. So with the kiss of genuine devotion, Luke 7:38, 45; 15:20; Acts 20:37, in
each of which this verb is used.¶
KNEE