Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is {c} within you.

(c) You look around for the Messiah as though he were absent, but he is amongst you in the midst of you.

People's New Testament

17:21 Is within you. A kingdom that has its throne in the heart, on which Christ, the King, sits. It has to be formed by yielding our hearts to Christ.

Wesley's Notes

17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there - This shall not be the language of those who are, or shall be sent by me, to declare the coming of my kingdom. For behold the kingdom of God is within or among you - Look not for it in distant times or remote places: it is now in the midst of you: it is come: it is present in the soul of every true believer: it is a spiritual kingdom, an internal principle. Wherever it exists, it exists in the heart.

King James Translators' Notes

within you: or, among you

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] within you

Gr. entos= "in the midst." It could not be said of a self-righteous, Christ rejecting pharisee, that the kingdom of God, as to its spiritual content, was within him. Our Lord's whole answer, designedly enigmatic to the Pharisees (cf) Mt 13:10-13 had a dispensational meaning. The kingdom in its outward form, as covenanted to David 2Sam 7:8-17 and described by the prophets See Scofield Note: "Zech 12:8" had been rejected by the Jews; Song that, during this present age, it would not "come with observation" (lit. "outward show") but in the hearts of men (cf) Lk 19:11,12 Acts 1:6-8.

See Scofield Note: "Acts 1:6". See Scofield Note: "Rom 14:17.

Meantime, the kingdom was actually "in the midst" of the Pharisees in the persons of the King and His disciples.

Margin within you

in the midst of.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Lo here! . lo there!-shut up within this or that sharply defined and visible geographical or ecclesiastical limit.

within you-is of an internal and spiritual character (as contrasted with their outside views of it). But it has its external side too.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:20-37 The kingdom of God was among the Jews, or rather within some of them. It was a spiritual kingdom, set up in the heart by the power of Divine grace. Observe how it had been with sinners formerly, and in what state the judgments of God, which they had been warned of, found them. Here is shown what a dreadful surprise this destruction will be to the secure and sensual. Thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. When Christ came to destroy the Jewish nation by the Roman armies, that nation was found in such a state of false security as is here spoken of. In like manner, when Jesus Christ shall come to judge the world, sinners will be found altogether regardless; for in like manner the sinners of every age go on securely in their evil ways, and remember not their latter end. But wherever the wicked are, who are marked for eternal ruin, they shall be found by the judgments of God.