In the world, yet not of it

     In 2016, the world watched as American politics turned into a cage fight between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In 2020, they watched a second fight between Donald Trump and Joseph Biden.

    Those last two elections had a way of bringing out the worst of some people--on all sides of the political spectrum. It was a tooth, nail, and claw free-for-all as people strove to prove why their candidate was the country's savior and the opposing candidate would be the nation's rapid demise.

 In the midst of the madness, there was an overwhelming increase in non-voters, people who recognized that the real problem wasn't in the two candidates and how unfit either of them were for the office of president, but in the society and culture that led to such individuals being presented as the sole candidates. And they realized that so long as society remained so broken, it really made no difference who held the office.

Those who declined to vote received overwhelming flak from both major political parties. They were told that voting was one's duty to one's country. Some were even told that it was one's duty to God.

But watching these two elections, watching the world panic over the Covid scare, watching everyday people go about their everyday lives, The more it dawned on me how 'of the world' the body of Christ has really become.

I've read the Gospels. I've read Acts. I've read the epistles. And the more I read them, the more I become convinced that political parties, land, possessions, money, even the ideology of "freedom", all of these things have crept under the door into the church at large, and without most people even realizing it, they have started to replace the kingdom that is not of this world.

    But governments are not won at the ballot box, they are won in men's hearts and souls.

    Moral laws do not redeem a nation. A redeemed nation produces moral laws.

    Freedom is not found in owning guns, gold, or enough land to live off the grid. Freedom is found through repentance of sin and belief in the saving grace of Christ.

Nowhere in scripture are we commanded to build an earthly nation founded on moral laws, so that we can worship God unimpeded by immoral man. Indeed, Apostle Paul told us that we have no place to order the lives of those outside of Christ. Once within the church, we are to hold each other accountable, to the point that it may at times be necessary to remove people from the body. But while one yet remains in the world, the church can not enforce morality.

We are called to go out into the world, preaching the gospel to the nations, calling them to repentance, and building a kingdom that is not of this world.

This is a mission that can not be thwarted by worldly man.

If Nero is emperor, shall we raise an insurrection? And if Constantine is emperor, shall we bask in worldly pleasures and comforts?

Nay, for we live in this fallen world, but we have been called to stand apart and not be of it.

If Nero is emperor,  he may take our "freedoms", perhaps even our lives. But what are our lives but a fleeting vapor in the wind? 

If Constantine is emperor, we may have easy lives and moral laws. But the hearts of men will still be blackened by the passions of sin. And what will we have for them to desire?

How much better is it to die in possession of a spiritual power that causes the world to envy us, than to live in a worldly power that fails to set us apart as a holy and redeemed people?

God's command to the church, insomuch as I have found in scripture, is as follows:

~submit to the worldly authorities till they would cause you to stray from righteousness, for they are set up and taken down by God himself. And though he may at times choose to accomplish these through mortal men, it is not always so.

~pay the taxes, for your money came from Caesar, and to Caesar it will return.

~Live quiet and peaceably lives, that no man may find just fault with you.

~Preach the gospel. With your words, but even moreso, with your actions. For faith is not saying a prayer. Faith is living a creed. You believe that the son of God became a man, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. But does your everyday life say that you believe in a God who rose from the dead? It is easy to follow in the footsteps of Daniel or his three friends, to proclaim your faith in the face of death. It is harder to live that faith in a world that bombards you with fear, anxiety, depression, and worry

~work to provide for your household as best as you can. But also, do not worry for tomorrow. So long as you are working faithful, and you abide in God's will, he will provide

~Love your enemy as hard as you love yourself. Pray for them, not for their demise or defeat, but for their salvation. You are not commanded to agree with your enemy, or even to see things from their perspective. But you are commanded to love them.

~~~

    Now, am I saying that it is a sin to vote? No. Is it a sin to desire a large house or financial security, to want to live 'off the grid'? Absolutely not.

What I am saying is that perhaps we have gotten to comfortable with doing life the way we've been doing it for centuries.

Perhaps we, like Lot, have allowed ourselves to enter the gates of Sodom, supposing that earthly pleasures are a sign of God's blessing.

Maybe, just maybe, its time to shake things up a bit. Maybe its time for the church to stop worrying about what the world is doing, and start holding itself accountable for its own lack of morality.