“Iesus answered, My kingdome is not of this world: if my kingdome were of this world, then would my seruants fight, that I should not be deliuered to the Iewes: but now is my kingdome not from hence.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
18:36 My kingdom is not of this world - Is not an external, but a spiritual kingdom; that I might not be delivered to the Jews - Which Pilate had already attempted to do, #Joh 18:31|, and afterward actually did, #Joh 19:16|.
Joh 18:36 My kingdom is not of this world. It would be hard for Pilate to form any conception of a kingdom not of this world, a kingdom of which the subjects did not fight with carnal weapons to defend its king, or to extend its borders. He was a soldier and the representative of a monarch whose power rested on the sword. But such a kingdom was Christ's. It was not of this world, did not spring from it, was heavenly in its origin, and hence his servants would not fight that he should not be delivered to the Jews. (1) Christ's kingdom is supernatural, not of human origin. It is in the world, but not worldly. (2) It is maintained, not by carnal weapons, but by spiritual and moral means.