Should the church get involved in social issues and causes?

Christians should be extremely careful not to adopt political procedures (such as majority voting) to regulate matters of their collective lives. Nonetheless Christians should, and do, have an impact in a world that rejected Christ, not by trying to improve it but by giving a positive testimony to Him.

The thought is all too common even amongst true believers that the mission of the Christian is to improve, and in this way, if possible, convert the world; hence they fling themselves, often with great ardour, into all sorts of schemes for the betterment of humanity, and plunge earnestly into political controversy, endeavouring to further the cause which they deem to be right.

Yet in many ways the teaching of the New Testament has been degraded to something merely earthly and social. Instead of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, only charity is preached, and this often with a political flavour. This, however, is not the meaning of the “Sermon on the Mount” or the gospel of the grace of God! On the other hand it is no testimony to the grace and mercy of our God if one thinks that preaching the gospel is the only task of a Christian with regard to the world. As our Lord Himself helped those in their different needs to whom He presented the good tidings, we too can tell our neighbours of Him and at the same time show them the power and blessing of our faith practically.

Yes, we believe in good works, but we believe those good works should be performed under the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit so that we know that whatever we are doing is being done effectively for God's glory and of course for the benefit of humanity at any given moment. So we believe in doing good. When we gather together to the Lord's name we do not want to hear a long discussion about doing good, we do not want to hear a long discussion about the condition of the world, we want to know about Christ, that is the function of the church. We want to know something about God. That too is the function of the church. Then in other ways we will know how these practical measures are to be carried out by each person, and there is a wide, wide field open to us.

Spiritual power lies in the Christian being here for God, separate in heart and ways from the world that crucified our Lord, yet accessible, like his blessed Master, in being available to meet the sorrows and spiritual needs of this world. The church sadly descends from her high estate when she becomes worldly, and political, merely pledged to social schemes for the betterment of the world, especially when the Gospel of the grace of God and the ministry of the word of God are relegated to the background. Unless these are kept in the foreground there will be a sad lack of spiritual power. A worldly church is a dead church, a stumbling block to the unbeliever, but lives that are truly Christian, lived by men and women going about undoing the works of the devil, will make their mark for God in this world, as nothing else will. General Smuts never uttered a truer word than when he said that we do not need a New World Order, but the teaching of the Bible, truly lived out.

"S. O." Accept our thanks for your faithful letter. Its tone and spirit are very grateful. Still, we fear you have not read our answer in No. 90 with sufficient care. If you will kindly refer to it again, you will find that we do not, by any means teach, that a Christian cannot engage in the lawful business of this life. Nothing is further from our thoughts. The question of our Laurencekirk correspondent had reference merely to the Christian's taking part in the politics of this world. We believe it to be inconsistent with the teaching of John 17 and Colossians 3. We maintain that it is contrary to the example of our blessed Lord, whose steps we are to follow: and finally, we declare that the Christian, in meddling in this world's politics, is acting without a single line of Scripture authority. The word of God furnishes the Christian thoroughly to all good works, but it does not furnish him with any authority to be a politician. It teaches him to pray for the government, to obey magistrates, to submit himself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; but it nowhere teaches him to wield the sword of worldly power. It is unintelligent to refer, on this subject, to Old Testament Scriptures, inasmuch as it was perfectly right for a Jew to exercise worldly authority, seeing that his citizenship was earthly; but "our citizenship is in heaven." (Phil. 3)

The programme of God for the present time is, "to take out of them [the Gentiles] a people for His name" (Acts 15:14), not to educate nor to legislate the Gentiles into better social schemes. We very much fear that at the present time, even when the Gospel is faithfully and happily preached, there is a tendency to over-stress its social implications, and throw into the background the eternal issues that hang upon its acceptance or its rejection. It is quite true that the evangelical revival in Britain of two hundred years ago led to a considerable betterment in the social conditions of the country, but that was only a by-product of the work. The main result was that many thousands were taken out of the nation for His name, and added to the church; saved from their sins and from an eternity of woe.

Did he appear as a great Social Reformer? He did not. On the one occasion when He was appealed to, and urged to interfere because of social and pecuniary inequality, He flatly refused to have anything to do with it (see Luke 12:13-15). Neither are we left here to be social reformers.

For instance: everybody says that a citizen of the country, a Christian, should be interested in the government of the country to which he belongs, and ought to vote, so as to help to put good men in power. God says differently; in many places and ways He tells me that, as His child, I am not a citizen of any country, or a member of any society; my citizenship is in heaven, and I have henceforth to do with heavenly things; the cross of Christ has crucified me to the world, and the world to me; if I give my mind and heart to these earthly things I shall be the enemy of the cross of Christ. Be not conformed to the world. What then shall we do with governments? Why, submit to them, since God orders them; and when they impose tax, pay; and make supplication to God for kings, and all in authority. All therefore that a Christian has to do with politics is to be subject to the powers set over him, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. It is true that in Christ he is heir of "all things," including the earth in which the world-system has now its operation, yet (as to Abraham in the land of Canaan) God gives him not so much as to set his foot on for a present inheritance, "The just shall live by faith." If, then, the true child of God refuses to vote, it is not so much that he thinks voting in itself wrong, as that he has given his vote and interest to the Man in heaven, whom God has exalted as King of kings, and Lord of lords. He has, beyond it all, lost his interest in these things, by virtue of something he has found which is far more attractive. He sees, too, that the world in spirit and essence is ungodly, that its boasted reforms and improvement are all tending to shut out God from the heart of man. He desires to stand as a witness for the truth and for God, and of the coming judgment, at the appearing of Christ when men are congratulating themselves on peace and safety. He desires that by these means others may learn through him to escape the snare by which Satan is entrapping the mass of mankind.

But did not Jesus, it may be asked, go about doing good? And may not the possession of political power and interference in the world's concerns, be the means of doing great good? This, however, is man's reasoning, and the place of a believer is not to reason, but to obey. Looked at broadly, in the light of God's truth, a Christian cannot do good by political action, for the end to which everything is working is plainly taught in the Word, and that end is not good, but awfully bad. Leaving, however, the domain of argument, and falling back on Scripture, what does the Word teach us? Undoubtedly it tells us that Jesus went about doing good, and it tells us, too, that believers are placed here for the same object for which He was here — "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world" (John 17:18). How, then, did Jesus do good? Was it by the exercise of political power? Was it by worldly combinations and societies? Was it by seeking popular support? Himself the only One who had a right to rule, or whose rule could bring blessing, He absolutely declined to receive power. Offered by the devil, He at once detected and denounced the deceiver. Asked to take the place of an arbiter, he replied, "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" (Luke 12:14). Perceiving that the people "would come, and take Him by force to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain Himself alone" (John 6:15). In private none ever laboured as He to do good. But the time for public and governmental blessing to the earth had not yet come. The sceptre was not yet put into His hands by the only One who had a right to bestow it, and He would receive it from no other. If the sceptre was not given by His Father, it must be taken either from the "god of this world," or from man, and from neither of these would He accept it. In what respect are things altered? Has God yet changed His mode of dealing with the world? Can the Christian receive power from hands from which Christ refused it? Or will God give it to the fellow-heirs, while He is yet withholding it from the One whom He has made heir of all things?

But are not the powers that be ordained of God? Unquestionably they are. Civil government is a direct trust from God, and the ruler is responsible to God for the way in which He exercises it. The maintenance of peace and order is according to God's institution, and therefore Christians are commanded not only to render obedience, but to yield suitable homage, and to remember those charged with authority in their prayers. But though instituted by God, it is left to man, to the world, and a world which lies in the wicked one, to administer. The time when it can be administered according to God's plans, the time when it will be used to work out God's purposes of blessing to the earth, has not yet arrived, and will not arrive until the throne of Christ is established in Zion. The use which man is making of this institution is to bring about the fearful state of things preceding the judgments executed by Christ, and surely no Christian would wish to have any hand in forwarding this gloomy catastrophe.