The Church and Politics

In This Election Season, the Church Would Do Well to Recall Its Mandate.

These questions can and should be asked: How are we, the Church, to address the very real social evils of the day? What part does the political process play in this and what part does the Church play in the political process? Should we, the Church, openly and vocally get behind the major party candidate who comes closest to the biblical ideals concerning the place of government in his stated positions?[i] Should we recognize and accept that more often than not (particularly on the state and national levels) the major party candidates (even the ones who are professed Christians) do not hold to Biblical ideals about government? If we reach that conclusion, should we then vote for a little known third party or independent candidate who does hold to a Biblical view of Government?[ii]

Should we, the Church, choose particularly Biblical issues such as abortion, homosexual marriage, and/or some other such moral issue, then use these as litmus tests for choosing candidates? That is, should we say, “Candidate ‘A’ is far from perfect, but at least he has stated a strong pro-life position. Therefore, I’ll vote for him even though his positions on other, not so obviously moral, government related issues may not be Biblical?” Or, should we consider a candidate who may not be quite as vocal as we would like on these moral issues, but who lines up with what we perceive to be the overall biblical concept of civil government – whatever that may be? Should we vote for the person who professes most convincingly to be a believer, or for the candidate whose platform is closer to our concept of the Biblical ideal of government, regardless of whether or not that particular candidate is a believer?

In short, what is the Church’s responsibility concerning the election of the civil magistrate and the passage or repeal of civil laws?

These are tough questions. Without at all being politically partisan, I can give several examples of how these questions can cause distress amongst well meaning Christians. For instance, some Christians may (rightly or wrongly) believe that the Bible presents a picture of a righteous government as being one that is first and foremost limited in its scope. This person would be for the scaling back, or the complete removal, of countless government programs and regulations, and the requisite scaling back and simplification of the collection of taxes. It is highly doubtful that this person would vote for a candidate from the Democratic Party. However, this person may also strongly believe that the Republican Party, for all its limited government rhetoric, does not live up to these ideals much, if any, better than the Democratic Party. A third party, such as the Libertarian Party may most closely line up with this concept, i.e. small, limited, and heavily guarded government and much lower taxes along with a much simpler tax collection system. However, more often than not, the Libertarian candidate is not a Christian, or if he is, he does not make any public issue of this fact at all. On top of that, Libertarian Candidates often are very much bent toward a secular idea of “individual liberty” such that in the name of individual “liberty”, they will overtly support such individual “rights” as abortion, and homosexual union. Therefore, what is this Christian to do?

Still other Christians may (rightly or wrongly) believe that the Biblical precepts, repeated in both the Old and New Testaments, regarding the poor and oppressed necessarily mean that the government should take an active role in providing for the poor, and freeing the oppressed, and that limited government is therefore not doing its Biblical duty.[iii] The Biblical duty of government would include not only social programs such as Welfare, Medicare, and Social Security, but also increased funding for public schools, foreign aid, and government works projects may be seen as a vitally important and Biblical function of government. This person is very unlikely to vote for a Republican candidate, and most surely would not cast a vote for the Libertarian candidate. But, when he looks to the Democratic candidate, he will again face the likelihood of voting for a candidate who is a vocal supporter of such things as abortion “rights” or homosexual “union.” Again, what is this Christian to do?

Aside from these issues, what is the Biblical view of such issues as gun control? Throw that issue into the mix, along with the mixed views individual Christians, congregations, and denominations have concerning this and the other issues listed above, and how can the church ever reach a consensus on what it should be doing in the political process?

Even aside from voting, what are Christians, individually and corporately to do? Should they devote time to the Pro-Life movement to help protect the unborn? Should they fight to keep the institution of marriage sacred? Should they be involved in charity work, helping their neighbors and others throughout the nation and world? Should they be actively involved, apart from simply voting, in the creation of more Biblical governmental structures, whatever they may feel they are? How do they handle their differences with fellow Christians?[iv]

I submit that all these questions are in fact important, and at some level, the Church should certainly be involved in addressing them. However, I would also submit emphatically that these are second order questions. That is, while vitally important, and sinful to neglect, these are not the primary issues facing the Church today, or any day. The Church’s primary duty is to be the Church. As Dr. Peter Leithart[v] has pointed out in numerous places before, the Church should be involved politically, but the most politically effective thing the Church can do is to be the Church.

But, what does it mean for the Church to be the Church? We can answer this in one word. However, in “unpacking” that one word, we will discover a whole set of positive outcomes. That one word is “Worship.” The first and the last order of business for the Church, the Alpha and Omega if you will, is to Worship in spirit and in truth the Triune God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all that ever has been or ever will be. In thinking through what this means, we can isolate several specific issues that the Church must address in its corporate worship.

First of all, all worship of a Holy, Righteous, and Just God by sinful men must start with confession of sin and repentance. How can the Church expect to make a difference in the fallen world around them, when it is itself spotted from head to toe with the stain of sin? The first order of business in the worshipping Church is to come humbly before the Throne of God, confessing and forsaking its sins, and to seek the forgiveness that can only come from leaning wholly on the finished work of Christ. If there is no repentance, there can be no progress anywhere else. If the Church chooses to “confess” to some generic god, absent the workings of each member of the Trinity, then there is no true repentance. If the Church relies on anything save the Blood of Christ for forgiveness, then nothing at all is really accomplished. Individual repentance on a daily basis is absolutely necessary. Corporate repentance on a weekly basis is just as necessary. As in all of these issues, as we will see, faith is key. When we faithfully repent, seeking grace solely through the Blood of Christ, God is faithful and just to forgive us. True repentance and confession necessarily brings true forgiveness and peace with God. A confessing Church is a forgiven, cleansed Church. A forgiven, cleansed Church, is a vital, living, and effective Church. A vital, living, and effective Church is a Church that is capable of bringing the nations to it, and making the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of Our God and His Christ. Already we see that the most politically effective thing the Church can do is to be the Church!

Second, the Church, as an institution, must proclaim the whole Word of God. And the Church, as the body of all believers, must listen and obey. The Word of God brings encouragement, love, forgiveness, blessings, and eternal life. It also brings discipline, fear, threats, curses, and eternal punishment. Emphasizing one at the expense of the other brings dangerous results. The Church then also must be willing to proclaim the whole counsel of God to the world around it. Again, this will bring either salvation and blessing, or it will add to the guilt of the sinful world, bringing condemnation. A Church that does not proclaim the whole Word of God, both inside and outside of its four walls, is itself in danger of falling away.

Third, in worshipping the Lord, the Church must keep His memorial. That is, a frequent and hardy celebration of the Lord’s Supper is not some optional, add-on, empty, ritual, but is in fact the very partaking of the Body and the Blood of Christ Himself by the Power of the Holy Spirit. In the Supper, not only do we remember what Christ has done for us (although we certainly do so), but in our partaking of the Supper, God remembers His Covenant with His People in Christ. Just as when God sees the rainbow, He remembers His covenant with all mankind, in the Supper, he remembers that the death of His Son was to purchase a people, a Church. God has vindicated and justified His Son through His resurrection and ascension. He will also vindicate and justify those who are united to Christ. And who are those who are united to Christ? They are precisely those who are worthy partakers of His Body and Blood. In this meal, God feeds and nourishes us, refreshes us, strengthens us, cheers us, and renews us to go back out into the world as his Ambassadors. In this meal, we, His Church, are lifted up into the heavenlies to be fed the true Bread of Heaven. The Church neglects this gift of God to its own demise. Why would we neglect such wonderful blessings? The Church, when it seeks to change the world through its “knowledge of good and evil” (e.g. the political process) without first communing with God and being fed from the Tree of Life, commits the sin of Adam over and over again. And we wonder why we are not more effective than we are!

As with the Word, however, we must also remember that the Cup of Blessing can be a Cup of Condemnation. Word and Sacrament should combine to make clear that only those who truly have faith are worthy partakers of this gift of God. Teaching the whole counsel of God means putting faith – a living, breathing, working, fruit-bearing, persevering faith – at the forefront. The Church should make clear that partaking in this wonderful event is not some magical blessing unto itself. It is a blessing, a wonderful blessing, to those united to Christ in Faith. Partaking of the Supper outside of Faith never saved anyone. In fact, it brings damnation. However, no one who has true faith should ever willfully neglect this celebration.

As celebration of this offering of Christ to us is a Thanksgiving meal (Eucharist), we should bring our offerings of thanksgiving to God. So a fourth item of worship is our offering. We bring our firstfruits to show our thankfulness and our utter dependence on the Creator and Ruler of the universe. We would not have anything that we have, unless God gave it to us. When we do not recognize this, we do not bring any fruit of our labor to Him – or we bring them reluctantly, absent of true faith and thanksgiving.. When we do recognize this, we gladly bring a portion of our fruit, showing our thankfulness and our reliance on the God who provides. Offerings are a vital part of worship. Again, faith is at issue here. Those who bring an offering outside of faith, are bringing only filthy rags and are of no use. Those who teach that bringing monetary gifts to God necessarily yields greater monetary gifts to the giver are totally missing the point. We already have untold riches in Christ. We have the infinite gift of eternal life in Christ. Our offering is simply our acknowledgement of this fact.

Worship as a whole renews us. Confession, repentance, and the reception of forgiveness from God renews us. Hearing commands, promises, and threats of sanction from God renews us. Celebrating the Supper of the Lord renews us. Recognizing our gifts from God and our dependence on God by bringing our offering renews us. After such renewal, we are fit to go back into the world and be ambassadors of the Most High King. Therefore, a sending out with blessings is also an important part of worship. The Church gathers corporately to commune with and worship God, and is therefore renewed to perform the work of dominion that God has given us as individuals, families, and societies. Here we see again the connection to politics. It is only a renewed people who can renew the form and structure of our civil government and to bring it, along with every other area of life, into captivity to the Word of God. When the Church tries to make changes in the world, while neglecting its first priority, only catastrophe can occur. The sad state of worship in the modern American Church along with the sad state of our current political affairs is really all the proof any Christian should need.

Peripherally, there are other aspects of the Church being the Church that should come out of our renewed interest in worship. First of all, as we are renewed every step of the way through our worship (confession/forgiveness, instruction, feasting/offering, sending out) we should more and more see our utter hopelessness without God. Conversely, we find that we are more than conquerors with Him and in Him. This should set our whole mindset into the mode of praising and worshiping God, as well as to bringing our petitions to Him. Therefore, this worship, as outlined above, should be frequently dotted with the hearty singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as well as with our laying our prayers of thanksgiving and petition before the Throne of the Almighty. No amount of praise we could ever bring God could ever be too much. No amount of thanksgiving that we ever give to God could be too much. And no problem, no matter how trivial or serious, can ever surpass the love and provision that God gives to those who worship Him and bring their needs to Him. Prayer and song, along with and beside, before during and after our confession, instruction, feasting, etc. should be a vital part of every worship service in every Church.

A final fallout from the Church worshipping in spirit and in truth would be that as individual congregations begin to follow something like the pattern discussed above, they will begin to see that, despite the serious and fundamental differences they may have amongst themselves, they are all part of one Body. They all share one loaf, and one cup. They were all baptized by one baptism into this one Body. All who are joined to Christ, by baptism, by confession, by the Word, by the Supper, and of course primary to all of this by faith, are all also joined together in one Body. Unity in the Church is of utmost importance. Unity will not come until the Church, the whole Church, becomes unified around the concept of actually being the Church.[vi] This concept, as stated above, means first and foremost that the Church is to be made up of many individuals forming one body in the worship of the One True and Living God – The Triune God of the Bible. Making worship primary, instead of secondary or worse, will have a tremendous unifying effect on the Church. A unified Church is a strong Church. A unified Church can make a difference in the classroom, the boardroom, the bedroom, and the family room, as well as in the halls of Congress, the White House, or the State house.

To sum up, making worship a priority will strengthen the Church. It will unify the Church. Like the familiar concept of a snowball growing once it gets started rolling downhill, a strong unified Church can then become ever increasingly stronger and more unified. A strong, unified Church will be an evangelical Church – lifting Christ up so he can draw all men to him. A strong, unified Church means strong, faithful individual Christians who can reach their neighbors, co-workers, spouses, children, and others for the cause of Christ – thus increasing the strength and unity of the Church. But, just as Adam’s continued growth and maturity depended upon his placing the worship of God as the top priority, the Church will fall, like Adam, if She places worldly dominion ahead of Godly submission.

As the Church grows in strength and unity centered around worship, then those questions that we began with can begin to be answered. Simply by doing this, many of them will begin to answer themselves. A strengthened, unified, renewed Church will by its very nature produce stronger, more Christ centered leaders in the society as a whole. Why should we worry about the latest political problems, when we know that the very gates of Hell shall not prevail against us?


[i] Of course, this begs the questions, “What are the Biblical ideals concerning the place of government?” and “How is the church to reach a unified position on this question?”
[ii] If so, in doing so, we must also recognize and accept that the minor candidate has exactly zero chance of being elected in today’s political climate.

[iii] These individual examples, of course, re-iterate the question posed in note (i) above.
[iv] For instance, how should the two Christians described above approach one another and the issues of the day?
[v] See for instance Dr. Leithart’s book, The Kingdom and the Power, 1993, P&R Publishing.
[vi] I am not here suggesting that what I am very briefly outlining is the final absolute correct process of worship. But certainly in principle every Church everywhere should embrace the fact that worship itslef is primary to everything else the Church can ever do. I do, however, hold that no matter the particular worship style or setting, these things – confession, instruction, the Table, offerings, and benediction should be the primary elements of our worship. Also, a truly worshipping people would necessarily be a singing and praying people.