The Politics of Faith

Over the past several months and in various settings, I have been requested to comment on the relationship between faith and navigating the current political climate. Particularly, I have been asked how the New Testament speaks to the relationship between faith and political understanding. While there are many places appropriate to look in the New Testament at the relationship between faith and political identity (Revelation and Gospel of Luke for example), in this post, I want to examine a passage in the New Testament that speaks explicitly about this subject.

In theLetter to the Philippians, Paul and Timothy write instructions to the church about its identity. In 3:20, they state “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there we are expecting a savior.” This word “citizenship” in Greek is πολίτευμα(politeuma)—also is translated “commonwealth” in some versions of theNew Testament. Aristotle described politeuma something like“constitution” which includes both the rights and the responsibilities that citizens of a particular place have. One’s citizenship—or we might say political identity—is where and in what kind of society one is constituted.

This concept is very important because it means that there is indeed a singular political identity for the body of Christ: it is constituted in heaven. According to Phil 3:20, then, heaven isn’t where the church is going—heaven is where the church is from. The church’s corporate—and therefore individual believers’—political persuasion is meant to be heavenly.

Let’s look at the contrast. In the verse prior to this one, Paul and Timothy describe the opposite of a heavenly constitution: one “of one’s own belly” (κοιλία, kolia).This means making decisions out of what benefits oneself; it means placing one’s own needs and desires as the primary decision-making factor.

Now notice, the difference between citizenship in heaven and governance by the belly is not the difference between faith and unbelief but between political orientations: one grounded in the making and experience of heaven here and now, while the other in personal gain and protection. The church, Paul writes, can only have one citizenship. It cannot live according to its belly on earth and then in heaven later according to heaven. The church is from heaven and so must presently live according to heaven’s rights and responsibilities.

By no means does this imply that there is one political party that is heavenly and one that is earthly. Partisan does not equal political. Political identity simply describes how we view people living together in society. And for that political identity to be “heavenly,” the church must both consider heaven the goal for current society and also live as if heaven is already the reality. In other words, how would people live together and experience life together if they were in God’s unfiltered presence? And the church must see the responsibilities of its citizenship to work at making heaven—and living in heaven—on earth a reality now.