How Does the Christian Stand in Relation to the World

Anchorage that suffices for fine weather is often found insufficient in storm and tempest.

So truths relating to the heavenly calling of the believer, readily assented to and acted upon in times of peace and quiet, are often found insufficient to stand the test, say, of war, when the tide of patriotism runs high.

It is not the anchor that is faulty, but—the holding ground. It is not the truth that is at fault, but—the hold, or rather the lack of hold, the believer has upon it.

The difficulty is—the truth is not popular. It is far easier to go with the tide than against it, especially when it is running high. It takes far more courage to be a Christian than a patriot.

At this time many Christians are perplexed as to what their true relation is to circumstances, which are perfectly new and extraordinary in the history of the present generation, and which are arousing very strong feelings.

It is evident that it is of the utmost importance that the Christian should whole-heartedly and unreservedly accept the place God puts him in. To do otherwise is to court disaster as a Christian.

The Question of Nationality

The question of nationality demands serious consideration.

How did nationality come about? Was it God’s intention and plan?

It is evident that nationality did not exist before the Flood. After the Flood, when the population of the world had increased to large dimensions, we read, “the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech” (Gen. 11:1). In their ambition the people decided to build one great centre—a city and a tower, “whose top may reach to heaven,” they said—which would weld the rapidly increasing population into one vast imperialism.

God saw their intentions, which, if realized, would confer enormous powers on the people, bent on independence of God. So He stepped in, confounded their language, scattered the people abroad upon the face of the earth, and called their city—“Babel”—which means confusion. Now “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Cor. 14:33), so that we learn clearly that nationality became a necessity as a result of man’s folly and sin.

If we leap over the centuries, and look at the last view of man, given to us in Scripture, we hear the voice of the Spirit, saying in connection with the eternal state, when all shall be according to God’s mind, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, AND THEY SHALL BE HIS PEOPLE” (Rev. 21:3). Nationality shall then be gone, distinction between Jew and Gentile, Briton and Teuton, will have perished—all the redeemed, with one heart, object, and occupation, shall be “HIS people.”

And even, spite of nationalities today, the oneness of mankind as evidenced in creation, and which cannot be destroyed by man’s wickedness, is declared in Scripture: “God … has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

Why should mankind, sprung from one pair, “made of one blood,” have conflicting interests? The sad answer is that sin is the master.

The Calling of God

After the narration of the tower of Babel incident the rest of Genesis 11 is taken up with the list of Shem’s descendants. This is to bring before our notice a very remarkable person, who is chosen to be the first exponent of an entirely new departure in the ways of God. Abram was the first person in the history of the world to receive a call from God to come out from his country, his kindred, his father’s house, and be a stranger and a pilgrim in a land which God would show him, and which he would afterwards possess. “The Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, to a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:1-2).

Abram’s call was a call out of and a call to. The call out of involved God’s setting aside the nations as such as the sphere of God’s purposes and activities. The line was drawn rigidly. Country, kindred, father’s house—all was to be left, proof that God would bless entirely apart from the course of this world on principles all His own.

From henceforth CALLING—this new departure in God’s ways with man, His sovereign choice—was to be the channel through which God’s blessing would flow. Chosen and called, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs followed in order, until the realization of God’s promise to Abraham came true: “I will make of thee a great nation.” The children of Israel became a called nation as Abram had been a called person.

Was Israel, then, a nation among nations? Nay, we read that Israel “shalt not be reckoned among the nations” (Num. 23:9); and Moses said, “Wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:16).

There were to be no intermarriages or treaties or affinities in any way—no alliances, no ententes cordiales with the surrounding nations.

And this was the fountain head of Israel’s strength with God, as of offence among the surrounding peoples, that they refused to be numbered among the nations. Whereas it was their weakness and dishonour with God, as it was their debasing in the eyes of the nations, when they forgot Jehovah’s exhortation.

The Heavenly Calling

But for the last nearly two thousand years Israel has been set aside. Her awful guilt has been the rejection of her Messiah. Judicial blindness is hers now. But they will be yet blessed. “The gifts and CALLING of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29); that is, without change of mind on God’s part.

But the setting aside of Israel has brought in the most wonderful dispensation of all, unrecognized by prophecy, relating as that does to the earth. This most wonderful dispensation is that of the church. The church has a heavenly calling. Israel had an earthly calling. The Christian today has a heavenly calling.

At the famous Jerusalem conference, which was to set the infant church free of the set domination of Judaizing teachers, James began his memorable speech by saying, “Men and brethren, hearken to me: Simeon has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles TO TAKE OUT of them a people for His name;” and the very Greek word for church or assembly is “ekklesia,” which means that which is called out.

Here we have it. A people within a people. A people called out from the nations of the world, called with a heavenly calling, and called to a heavenly destiny.

The great effort of Satan is to destroy this idea and hinder its practice, and get believers to have the character of dwellers on the earth (see Rev. 3:10).

Ever since God called the light day and the darkness night, the devil’s favourite device, if he cannot procure pure darkness, is to mix darkness with light, and produce a moral twilight. Ever since Jehovah decreed the ox and the ass must not plough together, Satan’s effort has been to bring about the unequal yoke: in this present dispensation, an alliance of church and state, of believer and unbeliever.

The Testimony of Scripture

Let the following scriptures come with all their solemnity and weight, and, may we add, blessedness, for all who have ears to hear:
  “They [believers] are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16).

  “Our conversation (literally, citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).

  “Wherefore, holy brethren, PARTAKERS of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” (Heb. 3:1).

  “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God ” (James 4:4).

Let the Christian reader weigh these and kindred scriptures, and let him accept the truth, so plainly stated by the Lord Himself, that he is not of the world. If he is not of the world, he is plainly NOT OF A NATION, but is “a stranger and pilgrim,” wherever he may be, whether in the country in which he was born or otherwise.

The Christian’s relation to the Nation

In what relation toward the nation does the Scripture put the believer? Trace the Scriptures—we mean the New Testament Scriptures, for they alone furnish the answer for this dispensation—and you will find the only place given is a place of SUBJECTION.

Let every soul be subject to the higher powers” (Rom. 13:1). The New Testament tells us how to be subject, but not how to rule, either as king or magistrate. They tell us the ruler is “a minister of God to thee for good”; and as to the very tax-gatherer, he is “God’s minister.” As to the supreme ruler, we are told to “honour the king” (1 Peter 2:7).

The Christian will not fail in subjection, provided the laws of man do not call upon him to disobey God’s laws, in which case he will seek grace to act on the Apostle Peter’s declaration before the Sanhedrin, “We ought to obey God rather than men,” cost what it may.

Difficulties stated

But some one may say, “The Christian cannot receive rightly the protection of army and navy, unless he joins in the protection of the country.”

We answer that to carry out this argument to the full would involve the Christian taking as full a part in the government of the nation as the unbeliever, whether in times of peace or war, whether in the making of laws in parliaments or in filling the ranks of army and navy. Can such a position as that be maintained in the presence of the Lord’s own words: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”?

What example has our Lord Jesus Christ—our great Exemplar—left on record? Did He by word or example encourage His followers to take part in the world’s schemes or government as belonging to it? Did he not refuse to mix Himself up with the political and military necessities of the hour?

Did the apostles take part in the politics of their times, in the national life of their country, in the military needs of the moment? They did not. On the contrary, as we have seen, the only place they give Christians in this world is that of subjection, and describe them as “strangers and pilgrims.”

One reason why the believer can happily accept the blessing of good laws and the protection afforded by the police, the army and navy, is that “the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1).

God is overruling and restraining the power of evil in relation to His people and the spread of the gospel. The world is unchanged since it crucified the Lord Jesus. It would not tolerate His people a single hour but for this restraint. How wonderful this is can be recognized when we reflect that Satan is the god of this world, and prince of the power of the air; no empty titles, and well seen as real in the temptation in the wilderness.

When King George V was crowned in the historic Westminster Abbey, the peers and peeresses stood, coronet in hand, waiting till the King should be crowned. When the crown was placed upon his head, then the right and proper moment arrived for them to place the coronets on their heads in proof of their loyalty to their King.

The Christian who seeks honour in this world and seeks to be great in it is putting the coronet on his brow before the Lord Jesus is publicly acknowledged in the place of supremacy, as did the Corinthians of old (1 Cor. 4).

The fact is the Christian is a heavenly citizen. He owes his allegiance to Christ. God’s laws are supreme. He is a patriot, but his country is heaven; he is a heavenly patriot; he is a loyalist, but his King is the Lord Jesus.

The Christian who is true to his calling will be neither Socialist, Conservative, nor Liberal. He is outside the world as a system, and all its politics. Nevertheless, the ruler of a country will not find more obedient, quiet, respectful subjects in his realm than the intelligent Christians.

Some practical reflections

In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 we read: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

First we are to pray “for ALL men—for kings and for ALL that are in authority.” And our prayers are to have in view the whole household of God upon earth, which is found in all lands, that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” And further that the gospel may go out through His people to all men of every nation, without let or hindrance, for the passage goes on to tell us that “God our Saviour … will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Unless Christians pray on these lines they do not pray according to the will of God.

I can understand special pressure upon the Christians in the country in which they live leading to special prayer for the king and rulers of that country, but I cannot understand special prayer made for one ruler at the expense of another, nor for one set of Christians at the expense of another.

But if we pray for one ruler alone to the exclusion of others, we are sectarian at once, we have ceased to be intercessors for all according to God’s will; and have departed from the place of extraordinary privilege which only belongs to God’s household, who are called with a heavenly calling, and are “strangers and pilgrims “on earth.

We are told to “honour the king,” that is, the particular ruler whose jurisdiction we are under, by acting in subjection to his laws, provided obedience to them does not involve disobedience to God. But we are to pray “for kings and for all that are in authority.”

God will answer such prayer, and that answer will draw all Christians closer together, and draw men to Christ.

It takes more courage in days of national stress and need to take up the Christian position than the national position. It is far more difficult to be a heavenly patriot than an earthly patriot. The one is never popular, always goes against the tide; the other is popular, goes with the tide and helps to make it.

Courage—divine courage—is needed. Once our position is grasped as according to God and Scripture, our path is to tread it with unflinching, unyielding courage.

Another reflection that carries considerable weight is that Christians form “a little flock,” and every one of them is needed in spiritual service. The need is tremendous, whether in the church or in the world, whether in the soldiers’ camps or at the battle-front. There are millions ready to grasp the sword, there are few ready to serve the Lord. Let us not forget that the souls of men need to be cared for and this is the Christian’s work.

Then there is the Christian’s duty to do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. In this we shall be kept right, if our motive is God’s glory and not man’s blessing. The more strongly the motive of God’s glory rules in the Christian, the more will man be blessed, and that according to God.