Articles
Civic Duty Is a Christian Duty
Ask ten Christians how the Faith guides our politics, and you will receive ten different answers. The Pharisees asked Jesus whether they should pay taxes. Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state religion of Rome with his Edict of Thessalonica. Martin Luther explored whether Christians really needed laws--shouldn't obedience to Scripture be enough?--and whether those laws were of any value to unbelievers. Christians today may simply want to know how they should vote or whether they should vote at all.
We must work within the framework of the confession we highlighted in last week's article: God reigns over all and has his hand in all. We make an idol of our politics whenever we venture outside of that confession. One can make an idol of being a conservative, another can make an idol of being a progressive, and yet another can make an idol of being apolitical.
I want to approach the issue in a very general way from two different directions, one this week and the other next week. If these arguments seem one-sided, that's because they are, by design. Lord willing, I will provide a synthesis--a way of understanding both positions together--Sunday after next.
Today we consider that God commands His people to be good citizens in their earthly kingdoms. The Lord tells the exiles in Babylon, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile [emphasis mine], and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:4-7). This is not the language of hunkering down, of hiding in enclaves, of cutting ourselves off from the secular world. This is instead the language of active civic duty.
What might this entail? Consider that one of Jeremiah's most prominent readers was Daniel. Daniel 9 opens with the prophet reading Jeremiah's "Letter to the Exiles,” the same text in which the Lord tells his people to "seek the welfare of the city.” Had Daniel not been seeking Babylon’s welfare from the moment he arrived? He served as a high-ranking minister to King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius, both of whom trusted him deeply. His service as minister required learning the literature and language of the Chaldeans, which would have included pagan rituals and magic. If this is the picture of one who "seeks the welfare of the city," then what shall we say of ourselves? Is it too beyond the pale for us to cast votes, to advocate for just laws, or to love and own the country of our birth when the prophet Daniel learned heathen customs for the sake of an adopted country?
The New Testament confirms civic duty as a universal principle. John's Revelation portrays Rome as a new Babylon destined for the cosmic rubbish heap, yet the Holy Spirit compelled early Christians to honor and obey the Roman Empire. Peter writes, "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor" (1 Peter 2:13-17). Paul writes similarly in Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Timothy 2:1-2.
For most of my childhood and my adult life, I have heard Christians of various stripes bemoaning Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump as if each of them was going to be the end of the country. Brothers, this ought not be so. If early Christians were to honor Roman Emperors, like Caligula, the infamous pervert who wanted to erect a statue of himself in the Temple, and Titus, who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, then what do we have to say for ourselves?
In general terms, then, our duty as Christians is to "seek the welfare of the city" and "honor the emperor." How precisely one does that is a matter of discretion, but we cannot flippantly dismiss our civic obligations in the name of the Faith.
As I wrote earlier, this is just one side to the argument. All of our talk about Babylon and Rome should send up some red flags. Don't Daniel and his friends stand against Babylon in the Book of Daniel? Doesn't John's Revelation condemn Rome as another Great Harlot after the image of Babylon? Indeed, the Books of Daniel and Revelation portray them both as tools of the Adversary. Next week, we will consider what the Word has to say about resisting the Harlot and holding up our Kingdom citizenship.
