Christians and Politics

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth (Heb 11:13).

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one (Heb 10:32-34).

There is a recurring theme in Scripture. The repeated concept is that we, as believers, are strangers in a strange land, visitors just passing through, "ambassadors for Christ", "exiles" waiting to go home. So I keep running into this mental conflict. Are Christians supposed to be involved in politics or not? If we are, how do we correlate that to the passages (and others) that I've listed? If not, why not?

So, what do we know? We know that Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" (Luke 20:25). I've seen accounts of people coming from a Christian position and arguing that we ought not be required to pay our taxes to the government. Jesus disagrees. Now, using legal, political means of controlling taxation, limiting taxation, and the like are probably something we are allowed to do. But it would appear that Jesus would argue against tax revolt.

What else do we know about the Bible and politics? Well, we know that God cares about politics. We know that "He removes kings and sets up kings" (Dan 2:21). We know that "there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God" (Rom 13:1). We are clearly told "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will" (Prov 21:1). We know that God is intimately involved in human power and politics, and rightly so. The Bible even includes recommendations for what the character of a leader should be. "Look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people" (Exo 18:21). And, of course, if it is true that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Prov 9:10) and we want wise leadership, it would be natural that we'd want to have god-fearing people in leadership.

We also know that God uses people to intervene in politics. He called Saul and He called David to be kings over Israel. When the Jews were in jeopardy in captivity, Mordecai asked his cousin, Esther, in a position to influence the king, "Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14). We know that Joseph appeared on the scene (via evil means but by God's plan) to regulate Egypt and guide her and his family through a 7-year famine. Thus, the involvement of believers in the political arena is often guided by God, not excluded. And we can say with absolute certainty that there is at least one area where all believers ought to be involved in politics: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way" (1 Tim 2:1-2). I would suspect that many Christians are more involved in political activism than prayer for those in leadership positions. Over against that, prayer is commanded while political activism is not. That would seem to be backwards.

Wayne Grudem wrote a book entitled Politics - According to the Bible in which he tries to lay out a biblical perspective on Christians and politics. In the beginning, he warns against five false views:

1. Government should compel religion.
2. Government should exclude religion.
3. All government is evil and demonic.
4. Do evangelism, not politics.
5. Do politics, not evangelism.

If you think about them, I think you can easily agree and, further, see how recognizing them would encourage balance. His position is what he terms "significant influence".

The "significant influence" view says that Christians should seek to influence civil government according to God’s moral standards and God’s purposes for government as revealed in the Bible (when rightly understood).

So there is stuff taken right out of Scripture and there is helpful input from a believer. Still, I'm not clear. Are Christians supposed to be involved in politics or not? If so, how much so? Influencing civil government toward God's moral standards is a nice idea, but how far do we go with that? I notice, for instance, that the New Testament saints didn't appear to attempt to influence their civil governments. Indeed, in early Church history there was almost a universal distancing of Christians from politics. On the other hand, we are indeed commanded to be "salt" and "light". We are to pray for those in leadership. We are to live our lives in accordance with biblical principles and biblical morality and encourage others to do so as well. (That is, if "biblical morality" is God's version of "good" and, by extension, "good for you", why would we not want to encourage others to align themselves with His standards?)

In the end, I'm not sure I can align myself with those who say, "It's a sin not to vote." I'm certain I cannot align myself with those who say, "It's a sin not to be involved in politics." Political activism, as good as it may be, is not a biblical command. We are commanded to pray for our leaders. When we substitute activism and voting for prayer, that would be a sin, since one is commanded while the other is not. On the other hand, if we are to be light and salt in a world that badly needs it and if we believe that God's version of "good" is good indeed, it would seem like abstaining from all such activity would be a mistake if not a sin. Living it would be most important. Praying about it would be a command. Voting on it would be adviseable. Perhaps you can see that I'm just not entirely sure how far I can go with all of it.