In the World But Not of the World: Transformation

(Picture from here)

This is the last part on a series of posts that link to a sermon I recently did at my church, Church on the Square in Sandton, Johannesburg.

In the last post I mentioned that in this post I would talk about transformation, since the series has focused more on the separation of Church and State and how that means the following:

1) That the Church should never be the State and should never wield the sword. The State’s responsibility is to wield the sword. The Church is a people, not an institution.

2) Christians are transferred into a Kingdom which functions under a King named Jesus — ie. political opinions must be seen as separate to the Church. If you’re a socialist and I believe in democracy our core mission, the Kingdom, is the same — which is to love others sacrificially and unconditionally like Jesus did, and let the world know that they can find love, joy, peace, salvation, real eternal life, and much more in Jesus. We should make sure we understand that political opinions are not the same as theological opinions — democracy or socialism is not a theology, it’s merely just a political opinion. Sure, one might turn out to be better than the other, but that doesn’t mean it is necessary more Christian, because the only thing Christian in this world is essentially people.

3) That the Church (the people) should never mix world ideologies with Christian ones — ala thinking that democracy is of the Bible and the spread of democracy akin to the advancing of the Kingdom; living like capitalists with our money instead of Christians who give generously and don’t make upgrading their lifestyle their core mission in life; always exercising our rights over others and looking to have power over them rather than serve them as Jesus served/serves us; judging people according to their income, education; and so forth.

4) The Church should never run as the world does — ie. running a church like a democracy (pastors / elders are voted into their job); running a church like a socialist state; and so forth.

That summary shows how difficult it can be to understand how we are still to transform our world and make it into a better place. After all, Christians do pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Plus, the Kingdom works its way through the whole dough, meaning that it is meant to permeate every aspect of society in every way.

‘In the world but not of the world’ is probably the best way to explain this. I think that the principle way transformation is done is through love first, which puts us on a relational level with others or those in power. Only then can we suggest (and only suggest) what might be good in a particular situation, or point politicians towards the basic principles espoused in the Bible, leaving it to them to work it out in detail, as that is, after all, their job.

Christians should also get involved with social causes as much as they can, as long as the social causes don’t become the core focus. We can bring as much food to poor people as we want, but until their hearts are changed (by Jesus himself as they believe in Him) they will not be able to truly break out of the systems of thought and spiritual entanglements that hold them in poverty.

Poverty is perhaps the easiest way to show what I mean. It seems pretty obvious that God has a big heart for the poor and so should we. This means that we should encourage our government(s) to look after the poor in various ways. But HOW that is done is a matter of political and economical opinion, not biblical opinion. It probably makes more sense to work in helping poor people be lifted out of the systems of thought that hold them captive rather than just give them hand-me-outs, but there is a time for hand-me-outs too. How that is worked out is not mentioned in the Scriptures — the Scriptures merely show us that we SHOULD care for the poor and for justice, but it’s up to us to work that out in the details, and to work with the State as best we can to work it out, but only as advisers never anything more.

Something like freeing people from slavery is an obvious evil to work against. But there are evils that are not so obvious, especially when it comes to things such as whether the State should allow homosexual couples to get married. (I realise this is controversial but it’s worth saying and it might stir up some conversation.)

After all, is it fair for a State to give benefits to heterosexual couples but not homosexual couples? Shouldn’t it view all people equally? Aren’t all viewed equal in the sight of God? The argument for or against it can be quite persuasive both ways.

I believe the Bible speaks against homosexuality as a lifestyle, but that’s something for Christians. Whether or not the State should allow such couples to get married is more a matter of political opinion than of anything else. Sure, I think a healthy country boils down to healthy families, but how this is all worked out in detail is a matter of opinion. What I do know, however, is that the State should never force the Church to marry homosexuals, as much as the Church should never enforce its morality through the State. Both have disastrous consequences.

People should come to Christ willingly. Our job is to love them sacrificially and unconditionally so that they would choose our God, enjoy the life He gives, and then choose His morality and lifestyle for themselves. The legalising of homosexual marriage I don’t think makes our job any harder than it already is. We love people just the same and counsel them just the same. Sometimes we have to love through difficult situations, but we ought to do it just the same.

Through the changing of hearts society itself will look more Christ-like, which is what we want, but that would be through people exercising a freedom to choose, rather than being under a compulsion — either socially or legally — by the Church. And it will come through us loving and living like Jesus.

In the World But Not of the World: Ideologies Do Not Rule Us

(Picture sourced from here

Because the Church and State are two separate entities and serve two different functions — the State serving to keep justice in the land, the Church serving to love others sacrificially — Christians can hold different political / economical opinions and yet still work together in the same Kingdom, because the Kingdom is our primary concern.

In Jesus’ day Simon was called a Zealot, which indicates that he held a certain political opinion. Basically, the zealots believed the Romans should be chased out of Israel by brute force.

On the other hand, Matthew was a tax collector, who effectively was working with the Romans and collecting tax for them. It’s easy to see that these two men held two vastly different political opinions, but Jesus calls them to the same Kingdom and they work together for the same end. That’s how the Kingdom works.

Likewise, you may be a socialist and I may be a capitalist. Or, rather, to prevent those ideologies from being our identity (calling you a socialist makes it your identity, which it isn’t) let’s rather say that you may believe a socialist form of government / economics will work, while I believe a capitalist economical system will work for the nation. We may hold extremely different viewpoints politically / economically, but we can work together because we agree on the same things in the Kingdom — we both agree we should love all sacrificially, that we should tell people that God loves them and wants them to know Him.

There are a couple of points that can be highlighted here.

First, neither capitalism or socialism is more biblical than the next, because the New Testament makes no comment on how a country should be run, but more on how a Christian should live. There are some basic principles that a country should do (uphold justice), but there are no detailed policies listed in the New Testament. As I said in my previous post, Christians are called to turn the other cheek, the State is not.

Because neither is more biblical we should never use the Bible to promote a political / economical ideology. Many pro-democracy people, especially some Americans to be honest (I’m not slamming Americans), think that Democracy comes from the Bible, and that the Bible supports democracy, so if they spread democracy they believe they are spreading the Kingdom. But if you check it out there are scriptures to support socialism in the Bible as well, and there are many. The point is that the Bible isn’t interested in these ideologies.

Second, in reference to this, our ideologies do not rule us. We are born into a Kingdom with a King, who is Jesus. HE rules us. He tells us what to do and we do it.

Third, we should never bring these ideologies into the church. Churches must not run like democracies or social governments. They run according to the Kingdom, under one Head, who is Jesus, and work through relationships between those in the church.

So when it comes to how we live we don’t apply the principles of capitalism on how we should handle money. We may believe capitalism is good for the country and good for our business, but it’s not good for our personal lives, and it’s not good for the Church. Jesus said we cannot serve two masters. We serve God and Him alone, and we don’t run our personal lives or the church by ideologies like democracy, capitalism, socialism, collectivism, or any other of these types of ideas.

So do you run your personal finances like a capitalist or a Christian? Do you approach your income like a capitalist or a Christian? That’s the challenge for us in South Africa, where capitalism is becoming the culture.

Sorry for the long post. The next post will cover transformation — so how should we affect government / society / politics / economics then? Do we have nothing to do with these? Or do we influence them in some way? And how could we influence them without getting sidetracked and with keeping our focus intact?

In the World But Not of the World: Who is the King?

These are thoughts with regards to a sermon I’m doing next Sunday, entitled “In the World But Not of the World.” This is the second part of many posts.

The early Christians used to have a saying that Christians these days still use, which is “Jesus is Lord”.

At the time, there used to also be another saying used in society, which was “Ceasar is Lord.”

In our context Christians must make sure that our first and foremost allegiance is to Jesus, our King. Our allegiance is not first to our government or to our ideologies of governance.

When Jesus was being questioned by Pilot, he said clearly that His Kingdom is not of this world.

Today, in South Africa, we might not see our government as Lord or the Caesar’s of the day, theoretically, but practically we still allow these things to be Lord of our heart. How? Well when we allow the ideology of the day to rule our hearts, or our ideological view of government (such as socialism or democracy) or we practice the world’s idea of power (to have power over others rather than serve them).

For example, many people dream that South Africa will one day become a ‘Christian Nation’. But what do they mean by this? Do they mean that most of South Africa would know Christ, or do they mean that the laws of the country would represent Christian morality? If the latter then they are mixing Christianity or the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of the world.

Another example: when we begin to use the Bible to defend democracy we are not using it correctly. Sure, there may be some Biblical principles in democracy but the Kingdom of God is not a democracy, and therefore democracy isn’t God’s government.

On a more individual basis: When we always defend our rights and insist on them, when everything is about us and what we want, we live democracy out in our hearts. Meanwhile, we are to live Jesus in our hearts, who did not insist on His rights and came to serve rather than be served. Here, we show whether or not Jesus is really our King or if democracy, our Caesar, is king.

I Don’t Live in a Democracy

Some of you might think this is going to be a political post, but it isn’t a rant about the ANC or anything like that — it’s about something far, far more awesome.

This weekend for me has been brilliant, and I’ve begun to really get this revelation that I, as part of the Church, have been transferred from this world and its oppressive systems into a Kingdom, a Kingdom with a King whose name is Jesus.

That might sound all typically-Christian-like but here’s the main thrust of the matter: ALL of this world’s political and economical and any other system you can think of have nothing to do with me whatsoever. They literally, not just figuratively, have nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with them.

Essentially, I no longer live in a democracy. In this Kingdom I live in there is a King and I follow out his instructions to the tee. I don’t have a vote or a say. Because He is an exceedingly good King I need never fear His decisions, His council, and His rule. I can obey Him in perfect freedom because every one of His decisions are / will be perfectly just and good.

I’ve said before that I would prefer to live in a monarchy with a good king than a democracy. There’s a lot of pressure in a democracy — I need to make things happen for myself, I need to put the system to work, and everything revolves around me and myself, and I’m sick of that kind of self-absorption where the centre of the universe is me.

Now, I’m transferred into a Kingdom where the centre of the universe is a living (yes, living) King who rules in perfect goodness. Now I can just enjoy life as He takes care of the big things, while I just enjoy being His child and His agent on this earth, and do whatever He tells me to do. I know that He’ll take care of things and I needn’t worry.

I can’t tell you what a relief it is. I realise this little write-up probably doesn’t do it justice but now I understand more than ever why the early Christians used to say, “Jesus is Lord” and why we do too. Because Ceasar is not Lord — the systems of this world are not my Lord, and Zuma and Malema and Obama are not my Lord. Their governments have nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with them.

Sure I still live in this world and that’s the point — I am in this world but not of this world. I’ll live with wisdom as God gives me direction in terms of my finances etc., and there’s nothing wrong with people being in politics either and we need to be salt and light to this world. All I’m saying is that His Kingdom is not of this world, and the Kingdom Christians live in is wholly and completely and utterly different — and free in such wonderful and unbelievable ways.