True salt and light in a world darkened by sin
Life on the pasture
My day at Beautiful Savior begins with teaching the 7th and 8th graders the Holy Scriptures and then history. Right after Christmas Break, we began a unit on the Civil War. It is fascinating (in an unfortunate way) to see all the similarities between the situation 160 years ago and today. At the time of the Civil War, each side worried that life as they knew it was going to be negatively altered forever. There were protests and riots, the press was being used by both sides as a willing propaganda machine, and there was political polarization. Sound familiar?
Civil unrest is nothing new. If one wants to see a brutal example of it in the Bible, turn to the end of Judges where you will read how the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out by the other Israelites. And in Jesus’ day, King Herod the Great (who really wasn’t a king in the true sense of the term), tried to get rid of the true King when he heard of His birth in Bethlehem. The High Priest Caiaphas was worried that Jesus would start a rebellion that would result in the political elites losing their power and influence, and so he worked to have Jesus killed as a danger to the nation.
The Bible teaches us to honor those in authority and pray for our leaders, but we are ultimately to love our neighbor as we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And so, if government does something that violates that Law of Love or sets itself up as a god, we are to work for the good of our neighbor. Yet nowhere does it tell us under what circumstances we have the right to rebel. Thus, at the time of the Revolutionary War, churches were divided on what a Christian should do.
However, one thing that is made crystal clear in the Scriptures is the call to follow our Lord and not only hear His Word, but also put it into practice. If we are in His Kingdom, our allegiance is to our King. Unfortunately, when one’s allegiance is first and foremost to a human-made party, it is easy for one to get worked up by the inflammatory rhetoric of others and put our trust in what they say is best rather than seeking our Lord’s will.
In my humble opinion, our nation is at a crossroads not only when it comes to social policy, but also concerning whether or not we will truly continue to work for life, liberty, and the equal pursuit of happiness for all. Instead of the art of compromise, we are more adept at the politics of destruction. And if one is outside of the prevailing opinion, one is shut down (just as the Christian Church has been in other parts of the world). But even where those in power have sought to stop the spread of the Gospel, its power to bring salvation continues despite persecution due to the allegiance of those in God’s Kingdom to the true King.
And so, in the midst of the unrest and concern over what is next, we pray for our leaders both newly elected and outgoing, asking that the Lord would guide their ways. And we pray for ourselves, that the Holy Spirit would work in us a renewed sense of allegiance to our King and the desire to first and foremost seek His will and His righteousness as we work to be true salt and light in a world darkened by sin.
– Pastor Schmidt