The arena of politics can be difficult to navigate. Now throw theology in the mix and the
difficulties seem to multiply.
Yet, God has given us his Word and he speaks to the political realm in a
number of different passages.
Today passage—1 Peter 2.13-17—is one such passage that gives us
direction on how to reason as Christians.
As will be mentioned in the sermon today, we need to apply God’s
unchanging principles to changing circumstances. Within the history of the church Christians have had to live
under varying political realities: monarchies, oligarchies, parliaments,
tyrants, and democratic systems.
These differing political realities still require the people of God to
heed God’s timeless instructions.
A helpful essay is Attitudes Towards the State in Western Theological Thinking by Torleiv Austad in the October 1990 issue of Themelios. Here are a few select
quotations from Austad’s piece:
From the NT texts which speak of
the life of the Christian in the world, we may draw the following conclusions
for understanding the mandate and limits of the state: First, the mandate of
the state is to deal with and regulate the common social, political, and
economic life of society.
Secondly, the state has the right to require taxes from the citizens to
be able to take care of some of the common needs, such as food and clothing,
work and social welfare, law and justice.
Thirdly, the state has to take care of and reward those who are doing
right and to punish those who are doing wrong. Thus the state is on the way to fulfilling its mandate of
administering justice. If the
state pretends to give itself divine attributes and becomes involved in
people’s relationship with God, it goes beyond its limits. It is also a
transgression of those limits when a state offends elementary civil rights,
especially when it restrains freedom of conscience. In addition, a just state, i.e. a state which functions in accordance with its mandate, may
not be totalitarian in terms of claiming sovereignty in all areas of life
without crossing the line and entering into injustice and demonic power.
The task of the church over against
the state is threefold: First, the church has to remind the state of its
mandate and limits. Secondly, the
church should encourage the citizens, Christians included, to co-operate with
the actual state as far as it is true to its calling. Thirdly, because the state is constantly tempted to become
totalitarian and degenerate, the church and Christians are called to be
critical of every state and evaluate its functions on the basis of ethical
premises. (p. 20)
Austad goes on to note that in the New Testament the state
is given neither principled renunciation nor uncritical acceptance. He writes:
The apparently contradictory
attitude can be illustrated by comparing Romans 13 and Revelation 13. In both cases Christians are confronted
with the Roman state. While the
governing authorities according to Romans 13 respect elementary civil rights,
the same state in Revelation 13—about forty years later—is seen as the beast
from the abyss. Therefore the
attitude of Christians has changed from obedience to disobedience. Within the eschatological horizon of
the NT the relationship between Christians and the governing authorities is
never fixed; it is complex, sensitive and changing. (p. 22)
The interface between the church and the state can be
tricky. Faithfully navigating
through all the twists and turns of both cultural and political analysis as
well as critically engaging in rigorous biblical and theological thinking is
difficult. Even when Christians
agree on fundament principles from God’s word there may still be disagreements
on how to best apply those principles to concrete problems and situations. May God give us the grace and wisdom to
faithfully pursue righteous and justice in all that we do—including in the realm
of politics.
