In the Context
With our feet firmly planted in eternity, we live in the moment, in the context, but we do not deify the context.
Our divine Sheikh does not reside in this universe. He can reach into our world at His own whim, but His existence is outside our plane of existence. He grants us His Spirit, which makes us His children and citizens of that other realm. From that point on, a part of us actually belongs there. All our loyalties are His; He is our true Lord and Master. He is our true government. That His laws are different from those of other governments is the whole point of this book.
In theory, if you could live under a civil government willing to recognize the primacy of the extended family household in all internal matters, then God would bless that government merely on the principle of fulfilling His demands of all world governments. You see, that Covenant of the Rainbow back in Genesis 9 applies to all human activity, including human governments, until there can no longer be any rainbows. If any government obeys Noah’s Covenant, it is a godly government. That means the primary burden is on the family, which also has to obey Noah.
Not a single government in the world does that. They are all illegitimate in God’s eyes. He will tolerate them and use them according to His own inscrutable plans, but He won’t be their friend. In a certain sense, we owe no human government any loyalty at all. Our moral duty to civil government is tightly limited; it is more of a tactical issue. By the same token, we have no authority from God to agitate for any government to change. Political agitation may seem reasonable on the human level, but it’s immoral. Whatever government we encounter has to decide on its own accord, voluntarily and with a will, to obey God’s moral imperatives. We can speak His Word and denounce them publicly, but we do not agitate or get involved in politics. That is anathema.
You see, God has no plans to fix this world, and has permanently closed the door on working directly through any human government. There was only one effort along those lines and that government failed so completely we have no words to express it. God sent dozens of prophets to warn them. Finally He sent His very own Son, and they killed Him. Jesus’ death released God from His end of the covenant; He totally and completely fulfilled it. Since the Cross, God does not sponsor any human government. Again, He uses them, but the only applicable covenant is Noah. Meanwhile, there are concrete plans to end this universe and give us all a new world to live in; this one is disposable.
If we had any sense, we’d rather not be here. Once we realize our true identity and home is in Heaven, we are begging for a chance to go home as soon as possible. God has plans to use each of us here; we act out our role until He is pleased to complete our individual redemption and we depart. Our whole focus is otherworldly; if it isn’t, we are woefully confused.
As noted earlier, we really shouldn’t expect much here. Nor should we care. Our entire universe is just a temporary tool for a job, so we should count our possessions and resources, even our very lives, as expendable. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on this earth.” There is nothing here worth fighting for except those few points at which God demands we expend some human effort to defend His interests according to what He has placed under our authority. Yes, that might even include violence, but such is not routine. We don’t even really expect to succeed, only to be faithful in trying. We might have a tough time appreciating pain and sorrow, but the prospect of physical death should still be precious to us.
The New Testament has some good advice about dealing with hopelessly lost human civil governments. Not the damned heresy about loving and embracing everything civil governments demand of us, but we do our best to fly under the radar. Try to avoid getting struck by the sword God grants human governments to keep human behavior under some semblance of control. Governments have a mandate to maintain social order, though few of them will do it very well. We don’t expect much and aren’t surprised by even the most hideous evil from government. That’s divine cynicism.
So while not exactly loyal to any human government, we aren’t here to contest their policies. Human government is background noise, a part of scenery against which we play out His divine glory. In our minds, God is in control of government as the conditions of our service. There will always come a point when you’ll resist and probably be punished because that’s the way it is. Paul didn’t always play nice with government officials; if he can manipulate and play tricks, on principle so can we. He played the Romans against the Jewish government.
Paul did that because his faith required it of him. Had he been in conflict with God’s plans, it wouldn’t have worked. At the minimum, Paul would have been under conviction about it. His clear conscience showed he was pretty sure it was God’s idea. Being arrested and turned over to Roman custody was God’s answer to his prayer to preach and teach in Rome. All the while, Rome was considered the Beast, Babylon, the most hideous human government up to that time. Knowing that didn’t prevent Paul making use of Roman policies for the gospel’s advantage. Paul wasn’t entirely honest with the Roman officials, but he knew what God required of him.
And don’t forget when Peter went along with custody only to be guilty of taking advantage of a miracle to escape from jail. That was resistance, an illegal act. Not active resistance with violence, but still willingly breaking the law of the land. God sprung him from jail, so what else could he do? His faith knew what to do. He went and hid from further arrest because God wasn’t finished with his life.
Most of the time, our mission requires we avoid notice and confrontation with government officials. We notice John the Baptist didn’t require penitent soldiers to desert their Roman military commanders; serve where you are. But unless government service is your individually called mission field, we have more important things to do than mess with government.
It would be misleading to think of ourselves as colonists from Heaven. God already owns everything. He doesn’t need us; He wants to use us, to include us in the blessings of living His divine order. We are roving recruiters; this world is not our home. We’re trying to give people a taste of Heaven by how we act, living God’s moral imperatives. Our witness for Heaven is not in our success, but in our growth, in our change from day to day. It’s not in what we produce, but how we reflect His glory. We are able to love those least deserving, to sacrifice our worldly goods, not blindly, but according to divine guidance that makes the most of it. We can’t trust human reckoning to understand how that works; we trust divine guidance in faith and commitment to allow us to see what God’s choices are for what He has given us. The rest of the world doesn’t recognize our divine authority, but we act on His behalf in the world He made, and which He plans to discard.
We’re just passing through.
