CHRIST AND THE STATE

“RENDER TO CAESAR the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22.21).  

Christians turn to these words when they ask the question: How are we to live?  They provide vital teaching about living in the world.

Three Spheres

We all live in two spheres: a family and a state (a nation).  Most of us grow up with our parents and even with a brother or a sister.  We may have grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins.  The family is important.

There are many families in the world.  What we find is that the families of an area have a common language.  In France they speak French, and in England English.

We also find that people of a country have a political system.  They may be led by a monarch, a president or a tyrant.  And they make rules or laws to help them live together.  Is there a limit to the power of the state?

Whilst it is true that people live in a family and a nation there is a third sphere which is important for Christians: the Church.  Christians are called by God to love one another as Jesus Christ loves them.  They are to live as God’s people is this world.

It does not take long for us to realise that the different spheres; the family, the church and the state; may present us with competing demands.  Thus some members of a family may want to go to the beach rather than to a church meeting.  Or the state  may require a church to obey a law which Christians believe to be wrong.  For example, is it right for the Prime Minister of Sweden to say that churches should conduct ceremonies at which two people of the same sex publicly promise to live together?

What are you to do when the demands of one sphere clash with the demands of another?

Pressure Point

At the risk of being criticised for being too simple, we have a choice.  Either we do what the people of the United Kingdom chose to do or you do what other countries do.  Put more plainly, we either organise the nation saying that God exists or you create a political order that excludes God.

Hitherto in the United Kingdom we have said that God exists.  It has been agreed that God has made both himself and his will known to mankind.  In France, Russia, China and North Korea they have tried to have political systems that either exclude or marginalise God.

History shows that sooner or later those countries which ignore God collapse.  Why does that happen?  Because life becomes intolerable.  Why?  Because slowly people realise that their desire to be free is suppressed.  They end up oppressed.  That is what happened in Russia (the USSR) in the 20th century.  And in those countries where people have more choice about how to live (democracies), they come to realise that the demands of one group often leads to the oppression of another.  Sooner or later that pressure point is felt.

What about us?

What has happened in the United Kingdom?  The former way of doing things has begun to break down.  Why?  It is because many people think that God has nothing to do with politics.  There are, they say, two spheres: the church and the state.  They are, they argue, to be kept separate.

However, it is not quite as simple as that.  I say that because those who do not want to see God talked about in the political sphere tend to demand that he is not.  In other words they tell Christians not to bring him into discussions.  The reality is that, when that demand holds sway, a form of tyranny emerges.

The opinion of the Swedish Prime Minister illustrates the point.  He is very close to telling Christians not just what they are to do.  That is the state control of the church.   But it is worse.  He is in effect  also telling Christians what they are to believe.  He wants them to agree that because same-sex unions are legal no one who conducts a marriage for a man and woman should not also take a ceremony for two people of the same sex.  That is tyranny.  It is to force Christians to do that which is wrong.

It is not alarmist to say that we are close to seeing something similar happen in the United Kingdom.  Politicians say much about the rule of law, one of their cherished British values.  But whose law rules?  Is it law of the state or the law of God?

Where is freedom?

The history of the United Kingdom teaches us that when a nation recognises that God exists and that we are answerable to him for what we think, say and do it may prosper.

I do not say that a nation will only prosper when every person is a Christian.  Sadly there will always be some who, true to their nature, remain hostile to God.

Why does a nation society tend to prosper when God and the Bible are respected?  It is because, of all the competing belief systems and philosophies that exist in the world; and there are very many; it is the teaching of the Bible that shows us what tolerance really is.

Take a topic mentioned above, same-sex behaviour.  Some say that those who behave that way are to be put to death.  Those who think we are free to choose what we do tend to denounce those who say that such practices are wrong.  It has become commonplace to accuse them of being homophobic; to say that they are not inclusive; and that they do not treat people equally or justly.  They may even say that such people should not be eligible to hold public office.

Neither those who demand the death penalty for same-sex activity nor those who denounce and exclude Christians show tolerance.

What do Christians do?  They do not demand the death penalty, though they are aware that God says that those who engage in same-sex activities shall be separated from him for ever if they fail to repent (2 Corinthians 6.9).  Nor do they ridicule those who adopt a same-sex lifestyle.  To be sure, Christians do not agree with what they do but they seek to share the truth of God’s Word in a loving and wise way.

Christians love all people, even their enemies.  They know what Jesus Christ taught.  They know that he has been amazingly good towards mankind.  And they know that he is the Lord of lords and King of kings.

God comes first.  The power of the state is to be subject to the limits put on it by God.  Its first duty is to ensure the people of the nation  are safe.  It is to let Christians live as God wants us all to live.

Jesus Christ is Lord.  His lordship is to be seen in all spheres; the family, the Church and the state.  Where it is tolerance will flourish.  Exclude God and it will not.  We are to give to Caesar (the state) that which God wants us to give.  And we give to God that which is his.

George Curry  9 July 2017