I attended a men’s conference with several hundred men in attendance one time that resembled a political rally more than it did a spiritual gathering of Christians.
The meeting opened with a man carrying a large American flag marching slowly down the middle aisle and up onto the stage, accompanied by another man playing bagpipes. When they arrived on stage, we were all invited to stand and say the pledge of allegiance to the flag.
After the worship time, which included some patriotic hymns, the speaker got up to speak. He was a US senator who gave a stirring speech extolling the virtues of hard work and free market capitalism.
That men’s conference is an extreme example of a mistake Christians sometimes make: that of conflating being a good citizen with being a good Christian. While both are to be encouraged, they are two very different things.
A good citizen is someone who abides by the laws of his country and who, when he disagrees with those laws, seeks to change them by peaceful means. A good citizen loves his country, fights for it if necessary, pays his taxes, respects his fellow citizens, and works for the common good. A good citizen enjoys the rights imparted to him by his social and political order without harming his fellow citizens. A good citizen respects authority without idolizing it and understands the proper use of force that is necessary to maintain social stability. In short, a good citizen willingly participates in the social contract that all members of his society have created.
The problem we Christians have, however, is forgetting that being a good Christian is much, much more than simply being a good citizen.
A good Christian is someone who has come into a right relationship with God through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, and who walks with God in love and obedience on a daily basis. As such, a good Christian is a member of, and participates in, the church, the body of Christ. This church transcends all human government and represents the coming kingdom of God on earth.
A good Christian understands that his final authority is not the state, but God himself. A good Christian recognizes that, unlike the state, God has imparted to him, not rights, but responsibilities as a result of the unmerited divine favor that has been extended to him. A good Christian, therefore, doesn’t just “get along” with his fellow citizens, but ratherloves them.
A good Christian recognizes that all human governments rest on the quicksand of materialism and human lust, making them ultimately unstable and transient in nature. This natural instability causes human government to crave legitimacy, sometimes coopting religion to accomplish this. A good Christian, then, will – as a good citizen – help his government achieve a degree of stability while at the same time holding it, as it were, “at arms length”. For he knows that there is coming a time when all human government will submit to the risen Christ in his return to reign on earth.
Then, and only then, will being a good citizen be the same as being a good Christian.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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