Religion, Politics And War

A house-to-house evangelist was explaining his mission to a lady who answered the door.

"I want nothing to do with religion", she said firmly. "It causes more trouble and war than anything else. Goodbye!" The door closed, the evangelist went on his way, reflecting on how frequently he was meeting this reaction to the gospel. People get sickened by so much violence in the name of religion, and Satan uses this to prejudice the mind against God's way of salvation.

It seems ironic that many who profess religions which advocate peace and goodwill should be incensed to violence and war against those who do not share their faith. Examples abound in the world today. It was a fanatical fundamentalist Muslim group in Egypt which brought about the assassination of President Sadat. Resistance to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan is partly motivated by Muslim hatred of an atheistic regime. Catholic and Protestant extremists in Ulster out-vie each other in vengeful terrorism. Lebanon is being destroyed by civil war between "Christian" and Muslim factions.

As believers in Christ we readily understand how far all this is from the teaching and example of our Master. His personal attitude to the social wrongs and political strife of His time was clear-cut. He had not come into the world to put these matters right. His mission was man's salvation from sin, the most fundamental problem of all. Other things were relatively unimportant. So when one said to Him, "Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me", He replied, "Who made Me a judge or a divider over you? ... Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth." When Peter tried to defend Him in the Garden of Gethsemane by cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus said: "Put up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword;" while to Pilate He explained, "My kingdom is not of this world:

if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight ... but now is My kingdom not from hence."

Nor should we regard this attitude as appropriate only to the Lord Himself because of His unique redemptive work. For the apostle Peter, who had been rebuked for using the sword in Gethsemane, wrote many years later in these terms for the guidance of disciples in his day and ours:

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.

So Christ's attitude was for our example as His disciples. We also must be prepared to suffer injustice without retaliation, relying on God to overrule our circumstances.

"The powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). The believer in Christ may therefore leave the ordering of the world's political affairs to God's sovereign control. Christian responsibility lies in prayer for God's overruling (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Having fulfilled this responsibility, we may then accept what God ordains, even though it involves government which is oppressively anti-Christian.

To become involved in violence is altogether alien to the example and teaching of our Lord. Involvement in politics also runs against the principle that the Lord's kingdom is not of this world. He calls upon the believer to be loyal to divine principles as expressed in God's spiritual kingdom, principles which are not acceptable to the world. He said to the apostles:

If ye were in the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:19).

Still today a disciple of Christ who faithfully expresses the principles of the kingdom of God will not be welcome among the world's political systems. Scripture views Christian testimony as dissociated from world rule, as Paul so clearly states in 1 Cor. 2:

Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to nought: but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery ... which none of the rulers of this world knoweth: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Prophetic scriptures place the matter in perspective as they point forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus to this world in power and glory, when the kingdom of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15). All who suffer wrongfully for His sake; now, and take it patiently, will then be recompensed. "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we endure, we shall also reign with Him".

unknown | Mar 1982
Focus