“Advancing” God’s kingdom

Is this something Christians should be doing?

I couldn’t resist performing a quick word study on basileia, the Greek word for kingdom, as it pertains what actions God’s kingdom takes and what actions we can take or undergo in relation to it. Below are two lists taken directly from the words of the New Testament as thoroughly as I could (with the exception of the notoriously difficult to understand Matthew 11:12/Luke 16:16:

God’s kingdom: 

• is or was “at hand,” 

• comes, 

• starts small, 

• has great (good) influence, 

• is or belongs to kiddos, the poor, and those who are harassed for the sake of justice, 

• has subsumed or will subsume the kingdom of the world, 

• has no end. 

We, in relation to God’s kingdom, can: 

• expect it, 

• see it (but not with signs that can be observed, and only if we’re born again), 

• be near it, 

• seek it or have it as our overriding concern, 

• find it, 

• proclaim or preach it, 

• hear it, 

• enter it (but only if we’re born of Spirit in addition to water, and with difficulty if we’re rich), 

• be transferred or brought into it, 

• inherit or receive it (as children or sheep), 

• have it taken away from us (as was the case with the people of Israel) for not bearing fruit, 

• be fit or unfit for it, 

• be its disciples, 

• be its workers, 

• shut people out of it, or 

• be it. 

Not a whole lot of action verbs in there for us. We certainly don’t “advance” it. The motif of the Scriptures is definitely us inheriting or receiving it.