Who Are We In This Political Season?

The Epistle to Diognetus was written most likely in the second or third century A.D. by an unknown (to us) Christian to those outside the church - it is a “tract”, a witnessing tool.

Here is a quote, “For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign county is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign…in a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.” [italics mine]. (The Epistle to Diognetus, in Michael W. Holmes, the Apostolic Fathers in English, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 295-96.

The very word “church” speaks of the followers of Jesus Christ as a people “called out” from the world, a distinct people. Paul tells the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), and Peter teaches that we are a “holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

Every nation-state wants the hearts of its people to be totally devoted to the state. This simply cannot be the case with those who follow Jesus Christ. In order to serve the state and our neighbors we must first be citizens of the Kingdom of God. We must learn to view ideas and events through the Kingdom of God, seeking God’s Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33). And we must never lose sight of the fact that he who would love the world-system and be a friend to the world-system is an enemy of God (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15 – 17). We are to love the people of the world but not those systems which enslave them – and there is no system that is without the toxicity of total depravity.

The above words of the early-Christian writer to Diognetus, along with the words of the Holy Spirit through Peter and Paul, ought to challenge us. Where are our hearts and minds? Where are they really? Are we (the church) truly a “city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14), or are we bound up (and in) political, social, and economic systems that have robbed us of our love for Jesus Christ, our love for our fellow man (including our witness), and our true service to the lost men and women around us?