When political campaigns wax hot and the world is besieged with claims and counterclaims, Christians who are conscious of their heavenly calling can go on serenely, knowing that men are merely working out “whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:2828For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:28)). Even though Satan is the god and prince of this world and is blinding the minds of those that believe not, God is still supreme and is moving behind the scenes to work out His own purposes and counsels. These may not be what men think are best, but we must remember that this world, as it is now, is not going on to a bright future, but to certain trouble, the like of which will never have been known before. It is guilty of casting the Son of God out and has not repented of its deed; God’s righteous judgments hang over it, ready to begin to fall when the true Christians are taken out.
What a mistake it is for Christians to think that they can improve this doomed scene by political means. When the Lord Himself was here, He did not try to improve it; He refused to be a judge between two brothers, to remove an iniquitous Herod, or to stop a wicked Pilate. He left this world as He found it, except that when He left it, it was guilty of rejecting Him. Can we suppose that we are to do what the Lord did not do? Have God’s thoughts about the world changed? He sent His Son into the world to testify for Him, and in the same manner the Son has sent us into the world.
The Example of Christ
How thoroughly unlike Christ it would be for a Christian to help select or to wield political power. Christ is the Heir of this world, and we are joint heirs with Him. Shall we, the joint heirs, have a place here before the Heir does? We are but followers of the rejected One, waiting for the moment when He will take us home. Our position is much like that of the Israelites who were sheltered by the blood of the lamb in an Egypt under divine sentence, while they themselves were awaiting the command to depart. How incongruous it would have been for those Israelites to be absorbed in Egyptian politics or to help to improve that doomed land!
The Christian is bound to respect all who are in authority and to treat them as established by God, but at the same time he is to pass on as a stranger and a pilgrim. His home is elsewhere; he is but passing through. He is here to represent One who is in heaven — to manifest Christ and His ways, which were always full of grace and truth. It would be as completely out of place for a Christian to mingle in earthly politics as for the British ambassador to Washington to become entangled in American politics.
One writer has translated Philippians 3:2020For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:20) thus: “Our politics are in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” How comforting! How encouraging! The sense of this should free us from all participation, and even from all anxiety in any political agitation, regardless of how or where. Soon we shall hear that shout and be off to meet our Lord in the air. May we be found feeding on Christ the “roast lamb” who underwent the judgment for us, and by whose precious blood we have been sheltered, while we are girded (shoes on the feet and staff in the hand), ready to depart. (See Exodus 12:8-128And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. (Exodus 12:8‑12).)
P. Wilson, from Christian Truth, 23:253-254