the notion of being ‘lords’ or ‘masters’ too. They want to be accepted as brothers and friends. If the phrase ‘rule of God’ is heightened even more through the translation ‘royal rule of God’, then even in confirmation classes one has to look far and wide for a useful comparison without straying into the columns of the tabloids, with their gossip about kings and princesses. If we open the New Testament, we find that it doesn‘t give a definition of the kingdom of God at all. Jesus never explicitly