Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empireনমুনা

Allegiance to King Jesus

A huge stumbling block in the church today is that Christians hold the Bible in one hand and secular politics in the other. We fail to let the former (the Bible) shape the latter (our politics). Or, even worse, we form opinions about secular politics and then use the Bible to rubber-stamp our pre-formed political views.

Asking politically charged questions might very well start a fight in church congregations today. But is our anger around these topics fueled by the narrative of Scripture or by one of our partisan political tribes? I suspect that many political values we passionately cling to were shaped more by our political parties and news outlets than by a study of Scripture.

But when we consider ourselves exiles living in the shadow of a foreign empire, we take seriously—in our churches and in our private devotional lives—the political implications of our allegiance to King Jesus. Scripture becomes the primary lens through which we interact with earthly politics.

So when asked a question like, “What’s your view of immigration?” our knee-jerk reaction is to look at what the Bible says about immigrants. The confidence of our response depends on the depth of our study of Scripture on the topic.

Imagine a world where our common baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus bonds us together more than our political views. Imagine a world where you feel closer to a fellow believer who you disagree with politically than you do to someone who shares your political leanings. Imagine a world where Christ’s kingdom creates a whole different way of viewing politics.

“Are you left or right?” people ask. I long for the day when Christians confidently smile at this question and answer, “I’m diagonal.”

To be clear, renouncing the left/right political options doesn’t mean we take a centrist or moderate position. Centrists are defined by the same political grid. I challenge us to adopt a different grid altogether—a political identity that doesn’t derive from the secular left/center/right options but instead from an allegiance to King Jesus. To not conform to the “pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

In what ways have you let allegiance to a political party affect your relationship with God and others?