Charles Ellicott Commentary John 18:36

"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." — John 18:36 (ASV)

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. His answer is twofold: first, in this verse, He declares that He is not a King in the political sense; and second, in John 18:37, He declares that He is a King in the moral sense.

By “of this world,” we are to understand that the nature and origin of His kingdom are not of this world, not that His kingdom will not extend in this world (John 10:16). In the world’s sense of king and kingdom, in the sense in which the Roman empire claimed to rule the world, He had no kingdom.

Then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. A better translation is, then would My servants have been fighting . His “servants” are His disciples, who would be in this relation to Him if He were a temporal king, and the crowds such as those who had sought to make Him king (John 6:15) and had filled Jerusalem with the cry, Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (John 12:13).

One of His servants had drawn the sword (John 18:10); and, had His will not checked the popular feeling, neither the Jewish officers nor the Roman cohort could have delivered Him to be crucified.

But now is my kingdom not from here. This means, “But, as a matter of fact, My kingdom is not from here.” This was proved by His standing bound in the presence of the procurator.

The clause has been strangely pressed into the service of millennial views by interpreting it as, “But now My kingdom is not from here. Hereafter it will be.” For the true sense of “now,” compare to John 8:40; John 9:41; John 15:22; John 15:24.