Government and Politics is a topic that some Christians find to be unpleasant, or anxiety-inducing, or, just uncomfortable to think about in church. But it is an unavoidable part of our lives, and so it does us no good to ignore it, or just hope it never comes up so we won’t have to deal with it.

If you tense-up at the mention of politics or patriotism in relation to our Christian faith, let me just say: I feel that with you. What are the jokes that come around every year at Thanksgiving? Something about… “if you want to make your family uncomfortable, just bring up religion and politics…”

Politics make people uncomfortable! Especially in church. But the government is an unavoidable part of our lives as humans – and God knows this. And how we relate to the government as Christians impacts the world that God loves so much.

God has very graciously and very helpfully included some pretty clear teaching for us in His Word about how we are to live as citizens on this earth while also retaining our primary citizenship in heaven. And one of those places is in the Book of Romans, chapter 13.

Before we continue, I want to assure you of a few things up front:

  • I am not gonna tell you who you should vote for – that is not my job.
  • I’m not gonna try to convince you to adopt a particular political stance or point-of-view or party.
  • I’m not gonna try to persuade you to be pro- anything, or anti- anything today.

The role of a pastor – the simplest definition – the root word for pastor is “shepherd.” And a shepherd’s job is to lead the flock to green pastures and to life-giving water, and to protect and defend the flock from predators and pitfalls.

God wants us to feed on the lush green grass of truth, and on the life-giving waters of righteousness and orthodoxy and orthopraxis that are described for us in His Word.

There are cliffs and ravines that will hurt you if you get too close to them. There are wolves and coyotes out there who would seek to devour your life if you are not well-grounded in a solid, Biblical view of the world.

So my job as a pastor – as a shepherd – is to guide you toward life in Jesus; and to defend you with the truth of His Word.

Romans 13 written by a man who was living as a Jew, who had converted to Christianity, and was a citizen of the Roman Empire during the 1st-Century A.D.

In Paul’s day, the Jews were a hated race of people, and Christians had zero political power or influence in the Roman Empire.

In Paul’s day…

  • There was no voting.
  • There was no choice.
  • There was only tyranny.

The Roman Emperor alone held all the authority in the Empire, and the common worldview of the time held that emperors were gods.

  • So, there was no dissent.
  • There was no protesting.
  • There were no riots.
  • Dissenters were arrested.
  • Protesters were silenced.
  • And rioters were executed.

That was the reality in which God inspired Paul to write these words:

1 “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

Romans 13:1-7

America is far from perfect – y’all know that. But Paul could not have even conceived of such a place like this:

  • There was no such thing as freedom of religion in Paul’s day;
  • there was no freedom of speech,
  • no freedom of assembly;
  • no such thing as due process under the law;
  • they had no elective representation;
  • no freedom of choice –

These would have been foreign concepts to Paul. At that time, if the Emperor said it – you did it – period. It would have been unimaginable to Paul that a human government would ever function the way ours does.

No nation in history up to Paul’s time had ever experienced anything like what we get to everyday in the United States. And, actually, from the time of Paul until America’s founding in 1776 – no other nation had ever experienced freedom and choice and opportunity like we have.

Remarkably few people throughout the course of human history have ever experienced anything like we have as just our normal life here.

Our nation has massive problems, to be sure – we are a very long way from perfect. But tyranny and authoritarianism and subjugation and the guise of a divine right for some to rule over everyone else – those are the forms of government that most of humanity has lived and died under for the vast majority of human history.

So – don’t worry – I’m not gonna try to convince you that our country has it all figured out, and that we do everything right. Of course, we all know that’s not true.

…But on the other hand – the honest, objective truth about our country is that – it is unique in human history. There are things that are fundamentally different about America than every other nation in history. And as a result of those differences, we, as a people, do get to enjoy greater liberty and opportunity and safety and choices for our lives than anyone else in the world ever has.

You don’t have to embrace everything that our nation has ever done – I don’t do that myself. But nor do you have to reject the whole concept of America because of the brokenness of our systems and the shames of our past.

And hey – why are those our two options, anyway? You ever wonder that? When you watch the news or listen to politicians, and wonder… It seems like so many in our world want us to either act like America is God’s gift to the world – a perfect heaven-on-earth – or else that we should completely disown our country altogether as something to be totally ashamed of…

I’ll tell you where I stand – and, humbly – I believe it’s a Biblical and a God-honoring stance:

I am both:

  • deeply grateful and proud to be a citizen of this country – AND –
  • I am deeply troubled by the shames of our past and the embarrassments of our current culture.

Those aren’t mutually-exclusive realities.

I am grateful to God for the freedoms and opportunities and relative safety that are afforded to me as a citizen of this country. And – at the same time – I am troubled and heart-broken by the culture of death and the systems of injustice that have plagued our country. It’s not just one of these or the other – it’s both:

  • gratitude for what we have, and,
  • a longing for something much better.

Some act as if patriotism is either all or nothing. That to be a Christian means to abandon all sense of loyalty to one’s earthly homeland. But that is not a Biblical worldview, and that is not God‘s requirement of us.

What God is saying in Romans 13 is that we do live as Christians in earthly nations, under human governments – and while they are not the ultimate authorities in our lives like God is, we are subject to the authority of those human governments – temporary and flawed as they are.

  • Love for country does not require a tacit endorsement of everything it’s ever done.
  • Genuine patriotism does not require blind loyalty to every single thing that happens in our nation.
  • And thanking God for where you get to live does not require exonerating that place of all its evils.

There’s room for both. Especially in America. And maybe I should say even uniquely in America.

Dissent, and protests, and disagreeing with leadership, and speaking out against your government – in most of the world, these activities are illegal, and are met with fierce reprisal.

America is one of the only – if not the only – nation on earth that actively defends its citizens’ rights to criticize it. Isn’t that amazing? We take that for granted because that’s where we live – but most of the world has no idea what that’s like. And such a concept would’ve been basically unimaginable in Paul’s day.

Have we always gotten it right in America? Absolutely not. Is there much still to be improved in our country? Of course!

But I venture to say that more can be accomplished through a love of one’s country – a measured patriotism that is properly submitted to God – than through a hatred of one’s country and a constant feeling of shame and disgrace by one’s earthly citizenship.

In the next post, I’ll share six steps for how to live in this temporary world as followers of Jesus while retaining our eternal citizenship in heaven with Him.