AN UNPREACHED SERMON (187)
Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst, two leaders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) known as Suffragettes. [Public Domain].
In conversation with a fellow Christian this week we covered the whole gamut of current affairs: the lack of sustained summer sunshine, the disastrous defeat of Scotland in the Euros and of course the possible outcome of the forthcoming election. Fairly early in our friendly but heated discussion he told me that he would not be voting; even using his own version of a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “A plague on all their houses”. He is a Christian who knows his Bible well. Had I asked him, he would have been able to give me in detail the main themes of Paul’s great letter to the Romans with its emphases on sin, judgement, election, redemption in Christ, the gospel, the Holy Spirit, commitment and consecration. All this and much more is covered in the first twelve chapters. But so many Christians never seem to carry forward these saving truths into an outworking in national and civil life as Paul outlines in Romans 13:1-7. Paul could not be clearer about the implications of our belief in terms of our behaviour. “Everyone must obey the state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God” (Romans 13:1). In the light of this, as Christians we are to work out our commitment to Christ in how we apply it to local politics, civic duty and national responsibility. The obligation is to opt in, not out.
IN THE WORLD AS IT IS.
As believers our true citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20), but that does not exempt us from living out our faith in the here and now. Otherwise, why pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven? Or what’s the point of praying regularly for our leaders? (1 Tim 2:1, 2). We are to bear witness in the world as Christian citizens, not as people who are politically indifferent or social anarchists. We are neither lawbreakers nor troublemakers, but tiny grains of salt (Matt 5:13) called to make a difference and contribute to the flavour of society; and what is our single vote, but a tiny grain of salt? This is the consistent NT emphasis. What we believe in the realm of private life is to flow into the arena of public life.
1 Timothy 2:1, 2
Titus 3:1
1 Peter 2:13-17
The writings of Paul and Peter take on solemn significance when we remember that both of them wrote at a time when the established authority was in the hands of debauched and depraved Nero (54-68AD). It must have been hard to swallow: “everyone must obey the state” and “existing authorities have been put there by God”. This is how Almighty God has ordered His world and the society it comprises. God holds ultimate power (Daniel 2:21; Jeremiah 1:10) but exercises it through the hands of earthly rulers for His own purposes (Isaiah 10:5-19; 45:1-6). God controls the affairs of men and nations. He allows good and bad governments because in His sovereign will they serve His purposes.
CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS.
Civil government is never merely a product of human design but a divine institution with a divine origin. Rebellion against earthly authority is rebellion against God. This world is not separated into sealed compartments labelled sacred and secular. “The world and all that is in it belongs to the Lord” (Psalm 24:1).
This means that as Christians we are subject
· To those who govern us whatever their politics (Rom 13:1)
· To those who rule in our name and by our vote (Rom 13:3)
· To those who seek to promote good and restrain evil (Rom13:4)
· To those who set taxes (13:7)
THE EXCEPTION GOVERNED BY CONSCIENCE AND GOD’S WORD
But in all this we are to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). We should be under no illusion that God endorses every pledge or decision made by human government. A glance at any political party manifesto will make that clear. Sinners in charge of a sinful society will not necessarily act morally, justly or biblically. But that does not lessen the fact that they are there by God’s permissive will. And never underestimate the fact that even non-Christians will sometimes take a biblical stance even while they are unaware of doing so. Christians are to be found across the political spectrum. But every promise, every pledge, every decision must be weighed up against the authority of biblical truth and Christian priorities.
There will be times, and this is why voting is never easy, when we need “to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The exceptions are simple enough and were neatly summarised in a recent Christian Institute pamphlet:
· When a government forbids what God requires – we obey God
· When a government requires what God forbids – we obey God
There are Christians all over the world living under dictatorships, who don’t have the freedoms of personal voting that we enjoy in a democracy. More than any of us, and at great cost, they know what it means to obey God rather than men. And increasingly in our own nation at present there are signs that this principle will have to be exercised at equally great cost by ordinary Christians whose first allegiance is always and only to Christ Jesus as Lord (1 Peter 3:13-17).
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