While in Romania, God gave our group an amazing, and unexpected, opportunity aside from our original purpose to work with orphans, gypsies and the poor. Because we were Americans and worked in or with the government, we were very popular, especially with other government leaders. So on Tuesday, we were a part of the first meeting of evangelical government leaders in Romania. The purpose was to come together and dialogue over the reason Christians should be involved and how that engagement should look, and the organizers and government leaders wanted to hear what we 20-year olds had to say!
I was asked to speak on the biblical basis for Christian engagement, so I thought I would post the contents of my presentation. It is really a collection of several things I have already written on novus lumen, but it was so great to have the chance to present these ideas and convictions to a group of people, especially foreign leaders!
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Thank you so very much Dr Negruzz and Senator Radu for giving us the opportunity to be here and dialogue over this very important topic of Christian engagement in government. What I wish to do is lay the biblical foundation for why we as followers of Jesus Christ must be involvement in our individual governments, and how that involvement should look.
I wish to share with you from Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth, in chapter 5 verses 13-20. Using this passage of Scripture, I will address three things: 1) Love must compel us to be involved in government; 2) We must look at the Capitol and government community differently, through the eyes of Jesus Christ; and 3) Involvement is not an option–we are called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ to all communities in the world, even in the government community.
Let me read for you the words of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 5:13-20 he writes: SEE 2 Cor. 5:13-20.
First, as we consider why we should engage our individual governments, we must realize that love must compel us to be involved.
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
If we are truly followers of Jesus Christ, love will move us to be involved in government. Why? Because Jesus wants to restore the individual person working in government and society. In this passage, Paul recognized he had been transformed and restored by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he was motivated to bring that same message of restoration and hope to other people. So because Jesus showed his love for Paul on the cross, Paul was motivated to love others and share Jesus’ message of restoration and hope.
In fact, listen to the words of John in the Book of 1 John:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
So the love of Jesus Christ should compel us, not politics or policy or issues. Instead, we should be compelled to be involved in government by the love of Jesus Christ. That love should compel us to restore the lives of individuals through Jesus.
Secondly, we must look at the Capitol and government community differently, through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Listen again to these words from Paul:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
If and when we are compelled by the love of Jesus Christ, we will not look at government as merely an institution or organization. Rather, we will look upon our American and Romanian governments through the eyes off Jesus and see a community of dark, hurting, and broken individuals who desperately need to be transformed by the love of Jesus Christ.
We need to realize our capitals of Washington and Bucharest are not merely centers of power and bureaucracy, but communities of broken individual people. In Washington, DC, Capitol Hill alone is literally run by 23,000 postmodern young adults (average age is 27), roughly 75% are unsaved. And these staffers are leading very broken lives that need the restoring power of the love of Jesus and His gospel. It is out of this hurting, broken, lost, sin-marked heart/mind/life that policy is being written.
So if we desire a society that is governed justly, a society that cares and provides for its citizens, a society that cares for its most desperate citizens, a society that rehabilitates its criminals well and a society that flourishes economically, culturally and socially, if that is what we desire of American and Romania, then wouldn’t it make sense to restore and transform individual lives within government to lead well? But the only way this will happen is if you see government differently–not as a bureaucratic institution, but as a community of lost and broken individuals.
Jesus models this best in Matthew 9:35-38
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Now here are the difficult questions that each of us need to answer: How about us? Do we look upon our government communities with compassion? Do we see a community of harassed and helpless individuals like Jesus does? Are we asking and praying for God to send out workers into the fields to harvest the plentiful?
This brings us to the last point, and the same one which I believe Jesus is making in this passage: we are the sent workers to harvest and influence the field of our governments.
Lastly, in light of this Paul’s words to the Church at Corinth, we must recognize that involvement as Christians in government is not an option: we are called as ambassadors of Jesus Christ to all communities within the world, even government communities.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Reconciliation means this: to restore something to the way in which it was originally intended to be. This relates to the God-man relationship and to creation-society.
As an ambassador of Jesus Christ, God desires to restore individuals relationships between Himself and government workers in Washington and Bucharest to the way in which they were originally intended to be: eternal relationships with their Creator, defined by love..
Like any ambassador, we are given a message to bear and communicate: 1) to be reconciled or restores to relationship with God through Jesus Christ; and 2) God desperately desires to restore the relationship of all who are in the government world to Himself through Jesus Christ, not counting their sins against them. But not only does God desire to restore the relationships of individual government workers to himself, through Christian citizens and you all, he also desires to restore society, as well.
Like any ambassador to any country, you are representing God’s desires when it comes to what a society needs and how it should function when it comes to: law, government, economics, education, the environment, foreign policy, and social policy. As Christians, and especially government leaders, we are called to even restore society to the way it was originally intended to be, and represent God’s desires in that restoration process.
In the words of Jesus, we are called to actively and deliberately be salt and light. He says in Matthew 5:
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
In closing, I wish to read to you a portion of a letter of encouragement I wrote to Christians working in Congress. I hope these words edify and encourage you in your own important work as ambassadors within the Romanian government:
I close by praying for bravery for the Christian citizens and government workers in Romania: that you would be brave enough to notice the walking dead around you; that noticing would spur brave, deliberate acts of compassion and healing; and the acting would flow from a brave commitment to being Jesus to the community around you in your government. It is Jesus who helps us want to be brave, to will and act according to his good purpose. So I close with a prayer that you would know Christ and the power of the bravery that compelled him to suffer and die on a wretched cross for you and your government community.
Thank you for your tireless efforts to serve this nation and Her people. I know the sacrifice and difficulty, so thank you. Also, thank you for your deep down desire to the ideal and vision of the Kingdom of Heaven. I am convinced that Jesus is using you for His purpose, glory, and Kingdom.
I end with the same word’s St. Paul wrote at the end of his letter to the Church at Ephesus: “Peace to you brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”
Multzamesk (thank you).
