In the last post, we explored a bit the concept of the Kingdom of God as an actual nation. I want to continue to discuss this idea. In a recent post, Patrick Mead discussed some of the implications of rebellion and Christians taking part in such. He wrote: “I cannot imagine a situation in which it would be right for me to call upon my congregation to take up arms and fire upon our own soldiers or policemen.”
As some who commented on the last post pointed out, this same reasoning needs to be applied to our Christian nation. Isn’t it even more inconceivable that members of the same family, the same body, the same holy nation should take up arms against one another? “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another…” unless you find it necessary to shoot one another. Really? Is that what we really believe?
If we understand the fact that we Christians form a single nation, the idea of us taking up arms against one another becomes unthinkable. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We cannot demonstrate love for one another while attempting to kill one another.
Our highest allegiance must be to our true citizenship, to the heavenly nation that we form a part of. The world will never see that as long as we place earthly nationalism above heavenly loyalty. Christians must refuse to place themselves in a situation where they could be called upon to attack fellow Christians.
I believe it starts when we refuse to accept the superimposed identities this world wants to place upon us, whether those identities are political, national, ethnic, social, etc… and to some extent, even religious. Instead, we must accept the identity given to us when by God’s grace through our faith, we were included in Christ. Here I am purposefully alluding to Ephesians, which was a church struggling with with division along the lines of Jewish and Gentile identities and how does the Apostle Paul respond? In Christ…In Christ…In Christ…which serves as a counter-narrative to the false narratives of this world which we have been trained for far too long to live by.
Grace and peace,
Rex
What is the most loving thing? To allow our enemies to continue destroying themselves and those around them, or to stop them?
As I blogged today, I’m completely out of answers.
Rejecting the world’s way of dealing with evil, walking the Jesus Way, will require such a radical reorientation of our lives that it seems hopeless when so many believers resist the Spirit of God.
If I’m going to fight violence and manipulation with sacrificial love and truth-telling, I’m gonna have to stop collecting toys and TVs and trucks and trousers.
Nick,
You ask the hard questions. But I have to agree with your assessment that the world’s way of dealing with evil is not the Jesus way. I think that’s where a lot of us get confused. We present a false dichotomy of total passivity vs. fighting violence with violence, instead of trying to discover how Jesus would deal with the evil in our world.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Tim, I wish we could get Tom Wright to write more about these questions. I think he’s the most brilliant theologian currently serving in a parliamentary body (House of Lords, from being Bishop of Durham), and I wonder what his thought process looks like as he integrates his Christianity with British politics.