[going through John 3]...John almost never uses the term "kingdom of God" (which is at the heart of Jesus' message for Matthew, Mark, and Luke). There are two exceptions, both of which occur in this unique conversation. Instead, John normally translates "kingdom of God" into another phrase that is notoriously hard to render in English. Most commonly, John's translation of Jesus' original phrase is rendered "eternal life" in English. Unfortunately, the phrase eternal life is often misinterpreted to mean "life in heaven after you die" - as are kingdom of God and its synonym, kingdom of heaven - so I think we need to find a better rendering.
If "eternal life" doesn't mean "life after death," what does it mean? Later in John's Gospel, Jesus reduces the phrase simply to "life," or "life to the full." Near the end of John's account, Jesus makes a particular fascinating statement in a prayer, and it is as close as we get to a definition: "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [God has] sent" (John 17: 3). So here, "eternal life" means knowing, and knowing means an interactive relationship. In other words, "This is eternal life, to have an interactive relationship with the only true God and with Jesus Christ, his messenger." Interestingly, that's what a kingdom is too: an interactive relationship one has with a king, the king's other subjects, and so on.
from "the secret message of Jesus"
