Today (the day I write this) was the inauguration of President Biden. I don’t know how you feel about that, but it did cause me to reflect that every now and then we do need to be reminded of Scripture’s patterns of cultural living so we remember how to think of ourselves as Christians in relationship to politics and the government. Let me just mention some principles to give some guidance in this moment – whether you are elated at the inauguration, devastated by it, or just glad that it’s over and we’re moving on. These are things that have always been true of God’s people, but that are easy to forget. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum let me offer a few principles:
1. Christians are “elect exiles.”
Peter’s first epistle is addressed to “those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pe 1:1). When Peter says this he’s not talking to people who were driven out of any particular place. He is writing to people who are largely natives of these various locations (people like us), and yet he says they are “elect exiles.” They are God’s people, scattered among the nations, and they are exiles where they live now. They live in a place that is not their real true home because they are ultimately citizens of heaven.
To put it another way, Peter is talking about them like they are the nation of Israel but living away from Israel. Elsewhere, Paul calls the church “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), so this is an excellent reminder that Christians are “Israel away from home” wherever we live. Christians are sojourners and travelers who are just passing through and currently dwelling in a place that is largely inhospitable and certainly not suitable as their permanent resting place. Have you forgotten that this place is not your home? This nation is not your permanent resting place. We have been scattered among the nations, among the gentiles. We are exiles.
2. We find the early church to be kindred spirits.
This follows right on the coattails of this last point. I think there was a season of American life where there was enough of a basic inherited Christian morality and viewpoint that most Americans could talk themselves into thinking they were perhaps living in a more or less hospitable culture. Now, however, it is helpful for us to put away a nostalgia for Mayberry. We do not live in Mayberry or the New Jerusalem. We live in a pluralistic culture among people with vastly different views of God, religion, morality, truth, and a thousand other issues. Like the early church, each day we go out into a culture that doesn’t understand our beliefs well and that need to be told about Christ.
We have a great deal in common with the early church through the first and second century. Michael Kruger has written an excellent book on the second century church called Christianity at the Crossroads. In the book he reminds us that while we may get excited about the moment in the 300s when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, the centuries before deserve our attention as well. They lived during a time when the church was seen as deeply bizarre to Roman society; after all, they worshiped a crucified man and refused to participate in many of the typical civic Roman activities and lifestyles of the day. They were known for refusing to practice infanticide, for example.
Kruger quotes Walter Wagner, who says that “the second century was a time of sharp disappointments, gradual adjustments, bitter controversies, and grave hazards for Christian communities.” This was a time when Christianity was seen as a “contagious superstition” involving “persons of all ranks and ages, and of both sexes” according to Pliny, who wrote during that time. Doesn’t that remind you of living now in the ’20s?
The struggle for second century Christians was to prove to society that while they believed differently than the culture, and refused to participate in sinful practices, they were ultimately just ordinary citizens. The author of the Epistle to Diognetus makes this point while defending the faith: “For Christians are no different from other people in terms of their country, language, or customs. Nowhere do they inhabit cities of their own, use a strange dialect, or live life out of the ordinary” (5.1). This didn’t stop the culture from seeing them as dangerous or a threat to the social order.
Increasingly the culture sees Christians in this way. This is not defeatism or alarmism; it is simply a realistic appraisal that the culture is moving in a very different direction from Christians. This need not make us angry or mournful, but it should make us more determined than ever to live, as the second century Christians did, with personal integrity, maintaining the witness of Christ, and continuing to share the good news of Jesus with our family, friends and neighbors – even if it causes some to look down on us.
3. We respect the governing powers without finding our ultimate joy in their success or failure.
When the book of Nehemiah opens, Nehemiah is serving as the cupbearer to the king of Babylon, Artaxerxes. When he hears about the horrid broken down state of the city of Jerusalem he weeps openly. He lives in Babylon, under a pagan king who worshiped false deities, and yet he held the king’s cup daily and drank from it to make sure he was not poisoned. He was a trusted man whom the King knew he could depend upon. Nehemiah could have easily come up with a justification for poisoning the king or trying to overtake Babylon for Yahweh, but instead he respected the power God had placed over him at that time.
At the same time, his one true love was for Jerusalem, not Babylon. How do we apply this in our context? We apply this principle by making sure we love Christ and the church more than we love the nation where we live. We live in Babylon, not Israel. We are in exile – not at home. We ought to love Israel, and seeing the church hurting should cause us to weep like Nehemiah; but when we see a kingdom of this world tottering, we should desire it’s good but never hang our hopes on it as though it is eternal or lasting. Even America, as great as it is, is not that eternal city that Christ is building (John 18:36). Like all kingdoms it will either fall to dust or eventually be consumed by fire (2 Pe. 3:7-12).
4. We live as quality citizens, “seeking the welfare of the city” where God has sent us “into exile.”
All of these things do not mean that we are indifferent, aloof, or distant. Again, keeping with the exile status that Peter gives us in 1 Pe 1:1, one of the best passages to help believers think about how to live as exiles comes from Jeremiah 29. In this passage God tells Israelites what to do while living in Babylon. He tells them, among other things, to build houses, plant gardens, eat their produce, and raise families. Israel might be tempted to think of themselves as opponents of Babylon, enemies of the nation where they are being sent, but God then says, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer. 29:7).
Israel goes into exile in this difficult place, and instead of starting an insurrection and overthrowing the government God says, “Live there, and be good citizens. Be model citizens. Keep to yourselves, raise your families, pray for Babylon, and continue to worship and love the Lord your God.”
Isn’t God gracious for giving us these patterns so that we can set our expectations appropriately for life in this world? Christian, will you let God, not the news or pundits, remind you of who you are in this world? We do not live in an age of triumph and conquest; we live in an age where we are called to humble and persistent faithfulness. This has always been true. Christ is conquering hearts even now. He is changing people, transforming people, drawing men and women, boys and girls to himself on a daily basis the world over. At the same time, he doesn’t do that through the state; he does that through us – through his church and her worship.
I end with some words from Michael Kruger about the early church and remind you to draw encouragement from their witness:
“Of all the things that made Christians unique, ultimately it was their worship that set them apart. Unlike their pagan counterparts, Christians worshipped only the one true God. And unlike their Jewish contemporaries, they worshipped the man Jesus alongside Yahweh. It was their distinctive worship that made Christians seem scandalous and superstitious. And it was this, above all that Christians were committed to doing” (Kruger, 231).
Adam Parker is the Senior Pastor of Evergreen Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Beaverton, Oregon. He is the husband of Arryn and a father of four. He is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS.