Previous posts include:
1. Would Jesus Even Vote?
2.1 (He would vote) As a Kingdom Citizen
Jesus would vote as a kingdom citizen continued
Christ vs. Culture
5. America is a wonderful place for me. When you enjoy living in your country so much, you don't think much about whether your allegiance could ever be a question. However, the situation at the time of the New Testament was much different. The vast majority of those in the New Testament had nothing to do with the Roman government. They were just stuck under Roman rule whether they liked it or not.
Now, some early Christians were part of the Roman system. Sergius Paulus was a Roman proconsul who came to faith in Acts 13:12. Quite possibly, Theophilus was also a Roman governor of some kind, the person for whom Luke-Acts was written. We know that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens (Acts 16:37) -- that placed them in an upper elite within the overall empire. But these individuals are the exceptions in the New Testament.
The early church went to great lengths to try to show the Roman Empire that they were an asset to it. Take 1 Timothy 2:2. Paul urges Timothy and the Ephesians to pray to God for the emperor and all those in authority. He instructs them to live peaceful and quiet lives. Who wouldn't want people all over their empire like that?
I seriously wonder if Paul wrote Romans 13:1-7 in anticipation that some Roman official might some day read his letter. After all, Christian Jews had already been kicked out of Rome once before in AD49 because of controversies in the synagogues. [6] How brilliantly inspired to make it clear that Christians were an asset to the empire and not a threat! Paul tells the Romans to submit to the Roman authorities. He tells them to pay their taxes. He calls the Roman state "God's servant for your good" (13:4). They should have no reason to fear if they are law-abiding members of society.
It is of course ironic because the emperor at the time was Nero, who would eventually put Paul (and Peter) to death. We probably should take Romans 13 as the ideal situation, not the state as it often plays out. Paul knew full well that the Roman government was not always just. After all, Pontius Pilate put Jesus to death. These are some of the reasons I think Paul is being somewhat aspirational here and also positioning the Roman church advantageously in relation to the Roman state.
1 Peter 2 is also addressing a church that is undergoing significant persecution. Peter tells the churches of Asia Minor not to make waves but to live squeaky clean lives so that they don't cause any trouble (2:12). He tells slaves to submit to unjust masters and wives to obey unbelieving husbands. The goal is not to give any pretense for persecution and to silence the foolish who say Christians are bad people. Like 1 Timothy, 1 Peter urges Christians to submit to the emperor, governors, and "every human authority" (2:13). [7]
In 1 Peter we find a theme that we will also find in Hebrews. Christians are to consider themselves "foreigners and exiles" here on the earth (e.g., 1 Pet. 2:11). Even though Paul was a Roman citizen, there would always be a sense in which he didn't fully belong. Hebrews puts it this way: "We do not have any lasting city here, but we are seeking the one that is coming" (13:14). Whether it be Rome or Jerusalem, we belong elsewhere.
Hebrews 11 has already anticipated this statement earlier. Abraham did not have a country, but he was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God (11:10). He was seeking a heavenly homeland instead (11:16). We can line this language up with the expectation that the kingdom of God will come when Christ returns. As we mentioned in chapter 1, Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
6. Those of us who live in a place like the United States live under a government that, on the whole, is far more friendly to Christianity than the Roman Empire was at the time of the New Testament. Still, there is a principle here. We should always keep in mind our priorities. We are citizens of heaven first. We should sit more loosely toward our earthly citizenship. That is not to devalue it. It is just to make sure we always have our priorities straight.
A good friend of mine, the late Keith Drury, once told me that his father would always say around election time, "I wonder who they'll pick as their president." It wasn't that he didn't vote. He did. But he installed in his children a reminder that, as Jesus put it, our kingdom is ultimately not of this world (John 18:36) -- at least not yet.
This is the perspective we find throughout the New Testament. We mentioned in chapter 1 that the New Testament takes a "Christ against culture" perspective in Richard Niebuhr's typology. In this view, the church is seen as something distinct and separate from the world. The New Testament saw the church as somewhat disengaged from the world.
Paul shows this dynamic well in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 when he was dealing with the man who was sleeping with his stepmother. "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church," he says. That's God's business. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." By contrast, the church should be very concerned about corrupting forces within the church.
We live in a different culture than Paul. I argued in the first chapter that we can have a much bigger effect on our culture than Paul was likely to have in his. If we can influence our world positively, why wouldn't we? But the principle remains. We are ultimately "other." We are ultimately strangers, immigrants if you would, in our lands.
Citizens in Two Kingdoms
7. A former colleague of mine told me recently that he and someone else in our church (who had been in the military) for a time had a battle over the American flag in the sanctuary. My colleague would sneak the American flag down from the pulpit and put it down on the level of the congregation. Then the other individual, as soon as he saw it, would put it back up on the platform. I couldn't help but laugh when I pictured this "game" that I think went on for quite some time. I think my colleague finally hid the flag from him.
I grew up with an American flag on the church platform. I never thought anything about it. There was a Christian flag up there with it. Although I now would not prefer it, I don't personally think it's worth blowing up a church. But I hope you're beginning to see why it doesn't seem quite right. No human state should stand on the same level as God's kingdom. Should Canadian churches have a Canadian flag on the platform? Should Orthodox churches in Russia have a Russian flag? Certainly, Nazi churches had a Nazi flag in the German churches.
There's a name for this dynamic. It's called "civil religion." It's what we've been talking about in this chapter. It's when the trappings of our patriotism begin to take on a religious dimension. [8]
I'm not trying to be heavy-handed or to give off a judgmental, condescending feeling. There's nothing wrong with patriotism. What I do want to do is plant a seed in your mind. Whenever you see matters of patriotism begin to give off a somewhat religious vibe, remind yourself, "My true citizenship is in heaven. I'm just passing through my current land as a stranger."
[6] As mentioned by the Roman historian Suetonius in his work The Twelve Caesars, in particular in Claudius 25.4.
[7] This instruction of course has exceptions. In Acts 4:19, Peter indicates to the Sanhedrin that when obedience to earthly authorities comes into conflict with God's commands, God's commands win.
[8] The term was used to describe these dynamics by Robert N. Bellah in his 1967 essay, "Civil Religion in America."
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