Kingdom Politics
1. Caveats, Clarifications & Assumptions
Faith, Culture & Politics, a.k.a. Kingdom Politics — How should we, followers of Jesus Christ and kingdom citizens, be involved in politics? How should we converse when we disagree on political issues? Many Christians are currently doing politics in unChristianly and unbiblical ways. Hypocrisy, double standards, focusing only on some sins while being silent about others, and wrong uses of the Bible are doing tremendous damage to our Christian witness and credibility. Fellow Christians are questioning each other’s Christian identity because they have different views on certain matters.
I call this Kingdom Politics because God’s kingdom is the answer to the world and also how we engage in politics. God’s Kingdom, his kingdom values, and his righteousness must be our foundation, starting point, and guide on how we practice politics. All political ideologies, views, policies, and practices must be measured against the kingdom principles as modeled and taught by Jesus Christ and as revealed in God’s Word. Our engagement with politics is one way of building for God’s kingdom. Please note that I say build for God’s kingdom and not build God’s kingdom because we cannot build or bring about God’s kingdom. Only God can do that, is doing that, and will do that finally and fully in the end. But in the meantime, God has chosen to work through his people, the Church, to build for his kingdom in this world.
In this series, I will not address political policies and issues except to illustrate how the kingdom and the cross of Christ address problems. There will be disagreements, and I will say things that you may not like. I ask that you listen carefully to the whole context and try to understand what I am saying. Please come and talk with me when you have questions and disagreements. Let us talk and reason together in love and as brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s disturbing to see how the Bible is misused to support political ideologies and views. People cherry-pick verses from all over the Bible to support a particular view while ignoring those that counter their views. Words and verses are taken out of context. We must always read a verse within the context of the chapter, book, and the whole Bible; read it in the cultural-historical context of the Bible times. And we must always read the OT in light of Christ. Jesus Christ and his cross stand at the center of the whole Bible. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). We cannot base a political view only on the OT. The light of the whole of God’s Word must be shined on the whole of life, including politics.
2. Living in Babylon
We are living in Babylon. We are living in a broken, sinful world. It is a world that is anti-God, devoted to wealth and luxury, consistently opposed to the way of the Lamb, full of itself and intent on being impressive, protected with the might of its militarism, aiming to become an international power, driven by economic exploitation of anyone and everyone, and at the bottom of it all is driven by arrogance, ambition, and greed—the lust for power, money, and self-gratification. Babylon is always present in some form in governments and empires. It affects all nations, human beings, human leaders, political parties, and, yes, even the church. All are under the power of sin and evil. No one can claim to be righteous and without sin (Rom 3:9-18). The globe is awash with terror, tyranny and trauma, divisions and despair. Our world seems dangerously combustible due to financial crises, pandemics, increasing injustices and inequalities, democratic chaos, wars, and rumors of more wars.
We are living in Babylon because no nation has ever been and can be a Christian nation. Christian, biblically speaking, is the name for people who truly believe in Jesus Christ, follow Him, and live out their faith in kingdom living. We should not confuse Christendom with being Christian. Christendom came into being because Christian values influenced and shaped the Western world very much, and much good came from this. Christendom gave us schools, universities, hospitals, the Enlightenment, the rise of science, and the ideas of universal human rights, things that are possible because Christian values are hardwired into the moral and intellectual DNA of the West. However, the resulting product, Christendom, was far from perfect. It did not make the world the kingdom of heaven. Often it was the opposite: it manufactured a merciless hell for many people. Christian values and the majority of the population professing the Christian faith do not make a Christian nation because every nation has policies and practices in place that are not Christian. Christendom, for all the cultivation of Christian virtues and advances in human liberties, was still tainted with the human capacity for evil.
“Anyone who can appease a man’s conscience can take his freedom away from him. Indeed, under the banner of Christ, rulers of the earth learned to oppress and strip people of their freedom for centuries, even if their rule and methods had nothing to do with the standards of God or His Kingdom. When it is within their self-interests to do so, any nation of this world is perfectly willing to claim the banner of heaven and God to promote their agendas and secure their power — even if that same motive stands in precise opposition to the values of the Kingdom of God” (Dostoyevsky). The rulers of this world love the things of this world — chiefly power. They may use the language of God’s Kingdom to appease our conscience, but the love of God is not in them. Nations have interests, and those interests centralize upon the accumulation of power. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:15-17).
The nations of this world do not honor God; they honor power and self-interest. This includes America, so even here in America, we live in Babylon. God’s kingdom is not based upon the visions and desires of this world but on the will and design of God. Any leader who confuses the will of God with their national interest runs the risk of confusing the purposes of God with their own self-interests. It was never the Church’s calling and mission to create a Christian political order or a Christian nation. Whenever the church has tried to do that, it was a tragic failure. The church and Christian leaders became corrupted very quickly by the power and wealth of Babylon. It committed terrible atrocities and injustices and oppressed peoples, all in the name of Christ. Even on their best day, no nation is the kingdom of God because God’s kingdom seeks a different land, speaks a different language, and operates according to a different culture.
I was born a South African. You were born Americans, but God extracted us from those identities and made us citizens of His Kingdom. We enjoy and are grateful for our freedoms and liberties in America, but they do not define us. We are part of the eternal story that is bigger than America. When we died to self to follow Jesus, we walked away from our worldly birthrights to become citizens of God’s Kingdom. His will and requirements hold us to a different lifestyle and standard. The Christian vocation is neither pious longing for heaven nor scheming to make Jesus king by exerting force over unwilling subjects. Instead, our kingly, priestly, and prophetic calling calls us to speak truth to power. We must do kingdom business with the business of political power. We should be concerned with the righteous exercise of government, seeing it move towards justice and fulfilling the service that God expects of governing authorities.
3. The Kingdom of God
So, what is the kingdom of God? Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:33-37) Jesus’ kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this world. It doesn’t originate in the same way or behave like the kingdoms of this world. But Jesus’ kingdom is still for this world, for the benefit and blessing of this world, for the redemption, rescue, and restoration of this world.
God’s kingdom and the kingdom of heaven mean the same thing: the sovereign rule of God over all of creation. “He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (Dan 2:21). “His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” (Dan 4:34-35) God is ultimately sovereign over history. Even amid the upheaval of nations, God dispenses in history and through history his common grace to all peoples. His goodness finds its way into our lives and homes despite the terror and trauma ravaging different regions of our world. History is the place where God is acting to bring about his kingdom. Thus, the kingdom is about God’s rescue and restoration of the entire creation. God’s creation rebelled against Him, but because of his great love, God longed to set his creation right. He desired to rescue it from the continuing corruption and impending chaos. God longed to re-establish his wise sovereign rule over the whole creation. This, however, would mean a great act of healing and rescue, which He did in Christ.
Jesus proclaimed the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk 1:14-15). God’s kingdom came to earth in Jesus Christ, in and through his work, teachings, miracles, and death on the cross. Then, he launched the new creation in his resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. He made us kingdom citizens and agents of God’s mission. Revelation gives us a beautiful vision of God’s coming kingdom, which calls us to faithful action here and now to bring God’s kingship over every facet of human life. It compels us to reorder our lives so that Jesus is the Lord of our lives. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. If Jesus is King, then we must wrestle with what Jesus’ kingship means on our southern border, in the many refugee camps across the world, in the Middle East and Ukraine, in the lunchroom of Walmart or Costco, in the board rooms of corporations, on the floor of the US Congress, or in the choices we make at the ballot box. There will be a day when politics is no more, when all things are subject to ‘the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah’ (Revelation 12:10). But until that day, we must act in faith, hope, and love in the present, offering our lives as a living sacrifice to our exalted Lord. In the power of the Spirit, we prepare this sin-cursed and war-torn earth to receive God’s reign when Jesus returns. We must erect signs of the kingdom until the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord and ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he shall reign forever and ever’ (Rev 11:15).
4. Seek First God’s Kingdom
So, how do we do kingdom politics? We seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness in all that we do, including our politics. Jesus taught and commanded us, “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Mt 6:25-31).
The kingdom of God has political implications for all areas of life. Our core beliefs and values influence our politics, and if we as Christians are not careful, our politics can shape our beliefs, causing us to compromise with the world and fall into idolatry. The gospel, and by implication, kingdom politics, declare that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. We should not wrap our Christian faith and identity in our national flag but wrap our national flag and identity in God’s Word and his kingdom. The critical light of the kingdom must fall on our politics, and where anything doesn’t measure up to God’s kingdom, we must renounce that and speak out against it, whether that is in our party or the other party. Kingdom politics means that I can vote for one party or one candidate but still speak out against the sins, wrongs, and injustices in that party because no one party is without sins and unjust policies.
Our unconditional loyalty and allegiance belong only to Jesus. If one’s allegiance is to a party, if one thinks one’s party is genuinely Christian, one has cut off one’s sisters and brothers. And so we divide the church by appealing to Caesar and our political alliances. This violates our faith and the kingdom. The church transcends party and politics because those who worship God and the Lamb are from every tribe, nation, and tongue. The church is universal—politics and parties are local and national. Any allegiance to Caesar is nothing more than idolatrous worship of the dragon and his beasts.
It’s sad to see how Christians fight internally and consider Christians of a different political commitment to be unworthy, undeserving, corrupted, and deplorable. Babylon forms allegiances to candidates as if he or she is a messiah. Our hope should be anchored only in God’s kingdom, not human leaders. When the church tries to make Babylon into the new Jerusalem, when the church attempts to bring about God’s kingdom in its own power, it does irreparable harm. Instead of doing good as witnesses, we grab for power. Instead of witnessing to Jesus, we become known for political allegiances, so much so that our politics reshape our witness into a corrupted witness. Revelation has shown us that the way to counter Babylon while living in Babylon begins with worshipping the One on the throne. As kingdom citizens, we should be committed to the politics of divine love: love for God and neighbor.
God’s kingdom comes where God’s will is done. God’s kingdom is where God dwells with God’s people in God’s place. Now, in this life, in this time, and in this world, God’s kingdom is manifested in and through us because God dwells in us. We are brochures, bulletins, and advertisements for God’s kingdom. Therefore, we should live and do our politics accordingly.
Is it possible? Yes, it is and has been. As one author said of the early church, “There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.” (Will Durant)
Whoever is elected, Jesus Christ is still Lord of all, and the King of Kings is still seated on his throne. The success of his kingdom is not dependent on or beholden to any candidate or platform. Christianity has thrived for thousands of years in all kinds of cultures and structures and under all kinds of leaders. We must redirect our focus to the eternal King and his powerful, everlasting reign.