The Church As Political (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
The Church as Political
Connection/Context
Yes, that is really the sermon this morning. Some of you might hear that and want to cheer, “finally- I’ve been waiting for this!” Some of you may have the opposite reaction, you wished you had slept in or found something else to do this morning. For those of you in the latter group, I’m going to do my best to stay in the world of Scripture (with some inevitable references to our city/world) and away from the world of opining. Also, I’m open to feedback on this sermon and pushing into blind spots I have- because like all of us, I have them. Not every pastor on our team would say things the same way I do. Also, if you find yourself disagreeing with me, you don’t have to leave our church. There is space for disagreeing charitably about matters as complex as public policy- even our pastoral team has differences in how we would communicate.
Now, before going further, I want to ask, Why this topic? Why mention how the church relates to politics at all?
The biggest reason is that more than ever, politics is becoming more complex and more talked about than ever. We simply hear about it all the time- to the point no one can avoid it any longer.
And, since the current state of things feels controversial and complex, most of us long for guidance and insight into how to think biblically about our world. If we as elders don’t provide it, you’ll likely find it elsewhere. While there are good sources out there, few of them are grounded in Scripture and many are sensational or misleading. Even if they give you the correct information, few form your hearts to respond to that information rightly. Our job to shepherd the flock includes our job to help shepherd you through understanding and engaging with culture and politics.
You might say, Isn’t this outside of a church/pastor’s lane? There is a myth that the church is supposed to be non-political- that is, the church only comments on things in our inner worlds (faith, emotions, lifestyle choices), yet should not comment on the world out there- we must leave that to professionals, experts, and politicians. My friends, that’s a recipe for disaster- God’s word is supposed to speak into everything and equip God’s people to do the same.
My point is not that the church should be a political advocacy organization, but that spiritual reality inevitably intersects with cultural and political policy because cultural and political policy is an overflow of moral and spiritual beliefs.
While the church should be biblically political the church- just meaning that our beliefs have implications for the political order. What the church should not be is partisan- that is, we identify with a certain candidate or party. I think that’s what most of us here have an aversion to is partisan church- which is right.
I’m defining partisanship as equating a vote to an identity- you identify with the candidate or party you have allegiance to. If a party/candidate is your identity, you go along with all they say and do and our emotions get plugged into their success and failure.
Rather, our identity is in Jesus, and we see government and parties as tools rather than identities we have- that is, they fulfill a function yet do not get our heart’s allegiance or affection (someone named Justin Giboney pointed this out). In other words, I’m not asking, “which party/candidate do I identify with?” but “which party/candidate more identifies with God’s good design for government and creation in general?” I’m not here to tell you who to vote for, but to begin to give some principles for how to think through it.
One more point before getting into our text: my focus is going to be relatively narrow. I’m not going to focus on a lot of specific complex policies that people care about and that do matter. We won’t be getting into things like gun control or healthcare policy; when to submit and when to resist authorities; or how to weigh the personality or personal morality of a politician against their policy. Each of those requires a specific, focused conversation, and this is just one sermon. We will be speaking more about a broad framework for government in a nation.
One that is particularly felt by our congregation is immigration as some of you are immigrants or know immigrants and there are ICE agents in our city and there is an active dispute over whether they are treating people humanly. Your situation matters to us, we want to serve you, the whole elder team met with Kelsey and Chupa a while ago to hear about the difficulties of that Haitian community and how we can help. If there are other ways we can help- please let us know! And I also want to thank God for people in our church who serve and help immigrants.
This sermon will not get into the immigration policy either. It’s a complex situation that needs a whole talk on its own.
Okay, after that lengthy introduction, let’s get into our text:
Context
After teaching about Jesus, Paul enters a section where he gives some teaching about the church, governing corporate worship and prayer:
Revelation
2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions,
When Paul begins to teach about congregational prayer-[1] he teaches that the church pray for all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. Do any of us pray enough? No. There are more kinds of ways we can always pray for all kings of people- we should be endlessly creative in our prayers.
So, Paul starts very general, and then he gets more specific in verse 2 that it he includes, “for kings and all who are in high positions.” That statement should teach us two significant things:
1. There is a higher authority than any king, president, or governor.
If you can pray to God on someone’s behalf, does it not imply that God is greater and more consequential than that person? No matter who occupies the White House or the governor’s mansion, there is a greater one who occupies the throne of heaven- and his authority is absolute. This is why we must not have political idols- because God reigns supreme over all parties and ideologies.
2. Probably the most important way a Christian should engage with government is that we should pray.
Does that not feel clearer than ever in our time? Now, there is more of a tendency than ever to get sucked into the black hole of politics via algorithms. What’s one thing you can’t be doing if an algorithm dominates and directs your life? Praying. It precludes you from doing the first and most important work of the Chrsitian- what Calvin calls “the chief exercise of faith.”
Do you spend more time on screens reading/watching/listening to politics than you do praying for our nation as well as all kinds of people in all kinds of ways?
3. We should have a demeaner of respect towards whoever occupies a position of authority.
God does not command us to pray for our leaders so that we can curse them in the next breath. But as Peter writes, “honor the emperor” (1 Pet 2:17) – who was most likely Nero who was despicable. One way we live our ultimate submission to God is to respect to the lesser authorities that govern our world- as flawed as they are. Do you tend to complain or criticize your leaders more than you pray for them?
That doesn’t mean that we never oppose or have conflict with government authorities- the Apostles do almost throughout the entire story of Acts (again, no time for that). Yet, it does mean we don’t have a reflexively defiant, demeaning spirit towards our rulers. Whoever our president or governor is a human being with a weighty responsibility we should pray for that person.
Next, our verse says something significant- that drew me to this text in the first place, and I want to linger here for a while.
that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
”that” is a word of purpose, showing us this is the outcome we are praying for, specifically in praying for kings and rulers. What is that outcome? “Peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.”
What is Paul’s flow of thought? He starts off emphasizing all kinds of prayer for all kings of people, then within that broad prayer mandate, he highlights the particular importance of praying for kings and rulers. Why highlight that group as the recipient of special focus in our prayer?
Because the result of praying for kings and rules are “peaceful and quiet lives” for God’s people. Now, why is that? I think it’s because if kings and rulers do the job God appointed for them, the result is a greater measure of peace and order in society- which, generally speaking, is good for human life, and good for the advance of the gospel.
We can see this is what Paul has in mind for a government official in Romans 13,
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Summary: God put governing authorities in their place and we need to respect them; in most cases, do what is good and you won’t have to fear the government. Yet, if you do wrong, the government has the sword, a tool of punishment and even death, to be the servant of God and inflict God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. It’s a weighty role. And because it’s a weighty role, Christians should pray and desire that it is done well, because it’s good for our church and good for our neighbors.
I think the biggest question that comes up here though is, What definition of good should the government seek? What does it look like for the government to do a good job? What’s the standard by which a ruler and policy is measured?
How would you define it? Or, if you were to design a government yourself, how would you put it together? What kinds of things would it value? What would be the source of its values?
THESE ARE HARD QUESTIONS! There is no easy answer. That’s one reason why this sermon is so difficult to preach- especially when you consider all the situational elements in our society today.
Yet, when I have thought about and studied government, the most helpful biblical way of thinking about the role of government and ethics in general (right and wrong in society) comes from a theologian named Andrew Walker. In an article series,[2] he explains that the part of the story government arises out of in the Bible is the creation story. The best place to look when defining the role of the state and ethics in society is the beginning of our Bibles.
After making man and woman, God blesses them and gives them “dominion” to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). It seems like Adam would have been the first king, and he would wield his authority to help people subdue creation- that is, to turn it into a better home for humanity to help humanity and creation flourish.
A comparison I can think of today is that it’s a good thing when the government builds roads and bridges or regulates a power grid for our cities. These things help preserve and enhance our survival in this cursed but good world.
I also want to point out that part of the state’s role should be to preserve and rightly define the ways God made the world. When the Bible first says that God made man in his “image,” he said he made us, “male and female.” Then in the next chapter, the creation story ends with a marriage (Gen 2:24). It’s good for a government to rightly define sexuality, marriage, and protect and promote the lives of families- healthy families promote life for God’s image everywhere and produce more of God’s image to fill the world (God’s original intent in creation, 1:28). And at minimum, it’s good for the government not to promote opposite ideologies.
Moving on, an extension of the creation story is the Noah story- since in the Noah story, Noah is like a new Adam and God is still relating with all the world though Noah (he says the same kinds of things like “be fruitful and multiply”). Yet now, there is evil and murder in the world (since Cain), and God gives an added purpose to government,
Do you see how God’s commitment to his image is still at the center? Now, the state has the role of restraining evil and violence through executing judgement. In my estimation, this is most likely the text that Paul is referencing in Romans 13 talking about the ruler, “he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
One other way to think about what I’ve been saying is that the government is the institution of the creation story or covenant. My understanding is that there are three major covenants in the Bible-
The New Covenant of Jesus. What is the institution of the New Covenant? The church.
Another is the Old Covenant of Moses. What is the institution of the Old Covenant? Israel.
The last one is God’s creation order (I think you could even say “creation covenant”). What is the institution that goes with that? Family and government. We are obviously focusing on government.
And you can see in that why the creation covenant should be normative for governments everywhere in all of time until Jesus comes back. The New covenant is specifically with the church, which is a subset of humanity.
The Old Covenant is with Israel- a nation among nations.
Who is the creation covenant with? All of humanity. By virtue of being God’s creation, everyone is under his authority and accountable to him (as Romans 1 argues), and therefore, the ruler who punishes evil is “God’s servant” to the degree maintains a general creation order. This is why I think it is good to want our government to enact creation covenant principles, but we wouldn’t want them to legislate every word of Jesus.
This does not mean that other things in the Bible do not apply to government or what kind of government Christians should want. However, It is not as clear or direct or the first thing the Bible has to say about governments in general. This is just more of an intro sermon on “first things” and not comprehensive. If you wanted me to walk through everything the Bible says that applies to government, we would still be here tomorrow morning at this time. So, if you struggle with this sermon, please be advised that there is more to say- I’m not saying it all! This is more of a basic foundation- not comprehensive of every policy debate.
So, I have been arguing that the government is God’s servant to help maintain the creation order. The government generally does a good job when it rightly defines marriage and family and protects those things as well as punishes violence against God’s image. Basically, if the government does a good job, there is more human beings in the world. Government at its best assists God’s image in multiplying and spreading over the earth- at it’s worst it devours human life.
As Jonathan Leeman has pointed out…
An example of decent governance: Think Pharoah in Joseph’s day.
An example of bad: Think Pharoah in Moses’s day or Herod in Jesus’s.
Now, before moving on, I just want to challenge us in one way. Are you ashamed of the way God designed the world or the creation order he put in place? You could even imagine yourself at a Christmas party with some friends/family who are not believers and these topics coming up.
Are you embarrassed that he designed people to be either male or female in accordance with their biology?
Are you embarrassed that he designed marriage to be exclusively between a man and woman and to be the basic building block of society?
Are you embarrassed that God is against all kinds of murder and senseless bloodshed- including abortion?
These are not the only moral/ethical issues God cares about. They are just some of the first ones that come up when you compare our society with the very first pages of Scripture.
Again, these are not the only things that are relevant to government. Yet, when we start with the creation order and the way God made the world, these are the first things that stand out and that the Bible emphasizes. I can’t even get into how to advocate for these things right now or what it looks like to prioritize them, I just want us to start with the heart posture: do we love the world God designed? Do we love the basic way he designed it and the things the first story in the Bible emphasizes? And if so, since these things belong to God’s general creation order, are you willing to hold them up even if it costs you to do so?
Okay, I want to ask one more question before we close. How does maintaining God’s creation order relate to our vision of multiplying worshippers of Jesus and healthy churches? In other words, how does creation and redemption relate? It’s surprising and wonderful to me that this is where Paul goes in the next two verses. We are back in our text in Timothy now:
3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
What is good? I think the verses that came before, prayer for all kinds of things and people- especially kings and rulers for the purpose of “peaceful and quiet lives.” Then, verse four relates God’s good desire for good kings and society with another of his desires in verse 4, he “desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
How do these ideas come together? What is Paul saying? These are not easy to piece together- they are just my best attempt. Generally speaking, a government preserving creation order and promoting human life is a good thing not just for humanity’s spread, for the gospel’s spread.
We had quite a bit of debate about this in the sermon prep team. I want to mention that the gospel doesn’t only spread when there is government that respects human life- there are stories of revival in repressive places like China.
Yet, the general situation we should pray for are ones that are conducive to human life/flourishing of humans in general and God’s people in the church. Think of Roman road which the Roman government built and protected from bandits was instrumental in the early and rapid spread of Christianity. Our faith would be deeply impoverished if Paul’s letter to the Romans never arrived because bandits killed the carrier on his way. Do you see what I mean?
Or more contemporarily, the thousands of our brothers and sisters who have been massacred by their Muslim neighbors in Nigeria. Besides the humanitarian crisis that it, generally speaking, I think we could say that it would be better for the gospel and the church in Nigeria if the government was protecting them from senseless death.
Another way to think about it is that in the story of the Bible, Noah comes before Abraham. God preserves[3] the world and creation through Noah, where he authorizes civil government to punish evil. He starts to rescue the world from sin and death through his covenant with Abraham. The covenant with Noah is mean to preserve the conditions through which God acts through his people, ultimately Jesus, to rescue us from sin and death.
Here is a quote from Jonathan Leeman from a talk that Andy Stevenson pointed me to,
“Government provides a platform on which God’s redemptive drama can play out. Common grace sets the stage for special grace, like teaching people to read so that they can read the Bible…
“The government’s job is to clear the path, smooth the road, set the stage, build a platform. A clear path and smooth road pleases God and should please us- for salvation’s sake.”[4]
I love this image of government being a stage for the drama of redemption. First, because it clarifies that the stage matters. If you own a theater, you should want a safe, sturdy stage. In our case, we should pray for, care about, vote for, and wisely advocate for a good, dependable stage.
Yet, this image also clarifies where our attention should be. Who ever went to a play and thought, “that’s a nice stage’? – not like the decorations, but literally the floor. No one. Rather, while we do care about the stability of the stage, our attention should not be on the stage but on the person who is on it.
In our case, that person is Jesus! He is the one our attention should linger on and the one for whom our affections should soar!
This is likely the biggest difference between the way we engage in politics compared to the world. The world is ready to put all their chips behind politics; they are ready to invest all their emotions and hopes in it.
Not us! Sure, we care about the platform- yet we LOVE the man on the platform, and the other people on the platform he is rescuing. This is how you keep politics from becoming an idol- political victory is never the goal- Jesus’s victory is the goal. If your emotions and hopes rise and fall on elections rather than Jesus, you have an idolatry problem with politics. I am recovering from this!
We should pray for our city/nation, we should vote in elections, we should advocate for God’s creation order in wise ways, yet at the end of the day, those things are a footnote in our lives compared to our goal of worshipping Jesus along with the multitudes he rescues. Even in this epistle by Paul, after mentioning “kings and rulers” briefly, Paul is right back to talking about God’s desire to rescue people and Jesus as the ransom price (1 Tim 5:6).
This is why our politics should feel differently from the world because though we care about society and governments, our hope is not in them, and our party/candidate does not need to win for Jesus to win. That’s why we stay gracious, that’s why we stay patient, that’s why we don’t freak out after a poor election cycle. We “do good to all” by praying and voting, then we do even better for people and the world by preaching the gospel and living like Jesus.
Finally, in the end, the ultimate political statement we make as Christians is Jesus will come back and rule the nations and everyone will surrender to him on that day. That’s the victory we hope for.
Let’s pray.
[1] Andreas J. Köstenberger, 1-2 Timothy & Titus, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 93.
[2] https://christoverall.com/article/concise/ethics-through-covenant-a-primer-on-progressive-covenantalism-and-moral-theology-part-1/
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, ed. Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt, Short Studies in Biblical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 39.
[4] https://www.9marks.org/article/what-authority-has-god-given-to-governments/
