The Church and Politics:
Is the Lifeboat in the Water? Or Is the Water in the Lifeboat?Larry Wilson
As I was returning from a lunch appointment, I was shocked to hear on the radio that Jerry Falwell had been found unconscious and was in the hospital. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that he had died. The Rev. Falwell professed and proclaimed Jesus Christ as Savior; he is surely enjoying the bliss of heaven by the grace of God in Christ. We should be thankful for the many positive ways that God used him during his life. I really don't mean to minimize that. He definitely incurred the wrath of the right enemies!
At the same time, he was a fallen sinner like the rest of us. We can also try to learn from his mistakes. Cal Thomas once zealously worked for Mr. Falwell as a vice president in the Moral Majority. Later, though, he wrote a book, Blinded By Might, distancing himself from and critiquing that approach. In some blog reflections on the late Jerry Falwell, Mr. Thomas observed—
The Jerry Falwell I knew was torn between the two kingdoms he represented: one not of this world and the other very much of this world; one with tactics and tools that could change lives and the other with tactics and tools that changed little. ...it makes one wonder why he put so much time, effort, and money into political organizing when with his other role as preacher he shared a message about a King and a Kingdom that was better able to change people for the better than either political party could ever hope to do. [1]
We do well to wonder that very thing. In the 1980s, I was largely in favor of the Moral Majority agenda. But I remember hearing Os Guinness warn that conservative fundamentalist Christians were pursuing a path that would lead to increasing worldliness. I remember hearing Charlie Dennnison warn that evangelicals were following the very path that led to Protestant liberalism. At the time, I was incredulous. But now, I fear that both of them were correct.
In that light, consider 1 Corinthians 5:9–13 —
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’ ”
In this Scripture, God calls his people to simultaneously pursue contact with the world and purity in the church. Our Lord Jesus put it this way: we are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:14–15).
It might be helpful to picture the church as a lifeboat and to picture the world as the water. To do any good, the lifeboat needs to be in the water, but the water must not be in the lifeboat.[2]
Put the lifeboat into the water
First, put the lifeboat into the water. Our Lord calls his church to be in the world. Look at verses 9–10 — “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.”
Our Lord calls us to pursue contact with the world, but don’t we in the modern church do just the opposite? We tend to want to take the lifeboat clear out of the water. We develop all sorts of respectable, religious ways to withdraw from the world. We isolate ourselves in a comfortable self-imposed Christian ghetto—with lots of church meetings, church schools, church sports leagues, church-based exercise classes or diet clubs, or whatever—Christian groups for nearly every activity. In this way, we never need to meaningfully interact with any non-Christians. In fact, we go one “better”—we retreat into a little Reformed ghetto inside the Christian ghetto. We even debate whose apologetic methodology is best without the least intention of ever engaging a real live unbeliever. May God have mercy on us!
In his book, Evangelism Through the Local Church, Michael Green urges:
“There is a dangerous tendency in the church … to seek friendships, relationships, and relaxation primarily, if not exclusively, within Christian circles. I recall how, in Bombay , I once was shocked to see a notice for a “Christian Swimming Club.” …although we may not advertise it like that in the West, much the same attitude prevails. It is so much easier to spend our time and make our friends among those who share our Christian faith. But that is not the Jesus way. We are called to come out of the ghetto. The lamp has to get on the lampstand; the salt has to go out as a preservative into the meat. The ghetto mentality, lauded as a virtue in some Christian circles, needs to be replaced by Jesus’ own (difficult) prescription for his followers: they are to be ‘in the world, but not of the world.’”
Bail the water out of the lifeboat
When our Lord calls us to be in the world, however, he at the same time calls us to be not of the world. He calls us to pursue contact with the world, but he also calls us to pursue purity in the church. Look at verse 11 — “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” So second, bail the water out of the lifeboat. Since we’re so afraid of the world that we try to get the lifeboat out of the water, it’s odd that we’re so content to let so much water seep into the boat.
Our Lord calls us to associate with non-Christian sinners but at the same time to disassociate ourselves from unrepentant so-called Christian sinners. But don’t we tend to get these backwards? We tend instead to withdraw from the world, and at the same time, to resist our Lord’s commands to pursue faithful church discipline. Whenever we tolerate serious sin in the church, we fail to bail the water out of the lifeboat. What irony! We try to get the lifeboat away from the water while all the while letting it sink deeper and deeper into the water.
Pull sinners out of the water and into the lifeboat
Third, the whole point of putting the lifeboat into the water and bailing the water out of the lifeboat is that we need to be in a position to pull sinners out of the water and into the lifeboat.
Our Lord commissions his church to go into all the world and make disciples. But if the lifeboat isn’t even in the water, we can’t do that. But nor can we do it if the lifeboat is full of water—even under the water!
Our Lord calls us to pursue contact with the world and to pursue purity in the church precisely in order to be in a position to rescue sinners by the life-giving gospel. But instead of pulling sinners out of the water, some churches jump in and try to swim with them. They want to be like the world in order to “attract” the world. Unless our Lord intervenes, such a church will eventually drown in worldliness.
Other churches, instead of pulling sinners into the lifeboat, try to beat them away. Don’t verses 12–13 stand out sharply against the prevailing social and political agenda of the so-called “religious right”?
“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’”
And yet the church is continually pressured to join in campaigns to judge the world. And so the church has tried to Christianize society—to clean up Hollywood , to promote prayer in the public schools, to elect politicians who most closely match ideologically correct political scorecards, to reconstruct the world by coercive political means. We’ve sought to wage war according to the flesh.[3] And what do we have to show for our efforts? The world is still wicked. Ironically churches and believers have done this largely at the expense of devoting their energies to exhibiting vital Christian faith and life in their personal walk, in their homes, in their callings, and in their churches. Unhappily, when we get things so backwards, we actually fail to present the living Christ to the dying world—and that’s our real reason to be! [4]
Brothers and sisters, our Lord says “it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). The whole book of Revelation depicts how the exalted Christ causes everything that happens to revolve around the condition of his church in relation to his unfolding plan. Do you want to transform society? Then first and foremost draw near to the Lord and build up his new society, the church![5]
On the positive side, the book of Acts reminds us that a Christian community that gathers people who have little human reason to get together, much less to get along with each other, has tremendous evangelistic potential—completely apart from any political activism! A holy congregation—which faithfully cleans its own house, but which doesn’t expect the unregenerate world to live up to the same standards—can make a profound impact.
David Prior puts it this way: “the world is waiting to see such a church, a church which takes sin seriously, which enjoys forgiveness fully, which in its time of gathering together combines joyful celebration with an awesome sense of God’s immediacy and authority.” But, he warns, “that will never happen if we refuse to come into costly, compassionate contact with men and women of the world.”
The Church Has Spiritual Weapons for Spiritual Warfare
The church is to be in the world but not of the world. But isn’t this just where the modern church is falling short? Is she not quick to try to correct the sins of the world but slow to try to correct the sins of her own members? God says that this is completely backwards.
“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you’” (vv. 12–13).
And yet, the modern church is bent on transforming the world by political activism. But when she does so she unwittingly gives the lie to the gospel. If unregenerate people actually can reform themselves and live by God’s standards, then they don’t really need the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. [6]
But they do need the saving work of Christ. We can’t really expect the world to live like Christians. We should, however, expect professing Christians to. Even though we must never consent to the sin of unbelievers, we should nevertheless cultivate friendly relationships with them. Even though we can’t really expect perfection in the church, we should nevertheless support and encourage faithful discipline in the church.
Keep putting the lifeboat into the water and at the same time, keep bailing the water out of the lifeboat. Then pray and work to the end that God will use our congregations to keep pulling sinners out of the water and into the lifeboat.
[1] http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/cal_thomas/2007/05/trying_to_serve_god_and_politi.html
[2] This analogy and some ideas in this article are stimulated by Roger Ellsworth, Strengthening Christ’s Church (Evangelical Press, 1995), pp. 89–93.
[3] See 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 — “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...”
[4] Please note well: In this article, I am talking about the church and politics; I am not saying that the Christian shouldn’t bother with politics. Christians are citizens of the state as well as citizens of heaven. As Christians, we each have an obligation to participate in society, including politics—in accordance with our God-given calling and stations in life. The church has a different calling, from which it must not let itself get derailed. But as citizens of the state, we Christians should try to make this world better rather than worse. God calls us to pray for and pursue the welfare of the society in which he has placed us to sojourn, because in its welfare we’ll find our own welfare (Jer. 29:7). Moreover, all the while we need to remember that until our Lord Jesus returns in power and glory to consummate his saving work, the world will not only never be the kingdom of God , but also it will never even be like the kingdom of God .
[5] When I was a student at Westminster Theological Seminary, I took an elective class entitled, “Christ and Culture” from Dr. Edmund P. Clowney. Dr. Clowney observed that throughout church history, whenever the church has been the most this-worldly-concerned and has intentionally set out to transform this world, it has instead ended up being co-opted by this world. When, however, the church has been the most heavenly-minded, continuing to look for the city with foundations whose builder and maker is God, and adhering to its ecclesiastical calling, it has actually ended up doing the most good for this world.
[6] As Cal Thomas reflects: “The flaw in the [Moral Majority] movement was the perception that the church had become an appendage to the Republican Party and one more special interest group to be pampered. If one examines the results of the Moral Majority's agenda, little was accomplished in the political arena and much was lost in the spiritual realm, as many came to believe that to be a Christian meant you also must be ‘converted’ to the Republican Party and adopt the GOP agenda and its tactics.
“One had only to look at the history of the religious left to see the danger in a shotgun marriage between church and state. Most liberal theologians long ago gave up preaching about another king and another kingdom in favor of baptizing the earthly agenda of the Democratic Party. That too many conservative Christians followed their liberal opposites into the same error was to their shame and demonstrated they had missed an important lesson.”