CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 36.

CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.

What It Is; Its Blessings.

The word “Christian” comes from Christ, and means “relating to or derived from Christ or his doctrine; professing or belonging to the religion established by Christ.”—Standard Dictionary.

The word “citizenship” means “the status of a citizen with its rights and privileges.” A “citizen” is literally “the resident of a city or town who enjoys civic privileges; a member of a nation or sovereign state, especially of a republic; one who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it; opposed to alien.”—Id.

As Christian is that which relates to Christ, or is derived from his doctrine, so Christian citizenship is the citizenship of Christ, the citizenship derived from him. The true citizenship of the Christian, the citizenship to which he lays claim, to which he will appeal, is the citizenship derived from Christ Jesus.

There is a common way of using citizenship, which pertains to nearly all men, especially in countries like the United States and England. Men are born in these lands, grow up to manhood, and by virtue of their dwelling in the country are citizens, entitled to the civic rights of citizens. So Paul was “a Jew of Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” Acts 21:39, R. V. He was born and reared there; he was not the Egyptian he was supposed to be. “In the eye of the law, all Roman citizens were equal,” says Gibbon, “and all subjects of the empire were citizens of Rome.” But this citizenship had naught to do with Paul’s Christian citizenship. That is, a Christian who was a citizen of Rome did not by that possess Christian citizenship; for the lowest slave in the Roman Empire who was a Christian was as truly a possessor of Christian citizenship as was Paul. Mr. Gage is by his physical birth a citizen of America. He is also a Christian. Mr. Kowalski lands to-day in Castle Garden from Poland. He is not a citizen of this country, and can not be for years. But Mr. Kowalski is a Christian, and he is by virtue of that fact as much a Christian citizen and possesses Christian citizenship as truly as does Mr. Gage.

Civil citizenship may be ours by accident or by choice. It is ours by accident when we are born and reared to it, as in the United States. It is ours by choice when, born and reared in a foreign land, we relinquish our allegiance to the government under which we are born and comply with the conditions of citizenship in a land of our choice. Civil citizenship is made and regulated by law. To possess it we must meet the conditions, or comply with the forms prescribed by statute. If it come to us by accident of birth and residence, to accept it fully, we must choose to do so by identifying ourselves with the interests of the commonwealth and the responsibilities it involves.

He who thus truly chooses citizenship in a country identifies his interest with that government, and appeals to it for the position it may give and the protection it is bound to give if able. Wherever he goes he is a citizen of that commonwealth, and an alien in every other commonwealth. He can not constitutionally be a loyal citizen of two civil governments at the same time. He must choose one among the many. But as soon as he chooses one, he relinquishes citizenship in the others. This would be evident at once in case of war among the nations.

Should we grant that a fully enlightened and devoted Christian could be a citizen of a civil government, it is clearly evident that his civil citizenship is no different from that of the citizenship of an unbeliever. That of both or each is based on the same statute law. To illustrate: Mr. Smith may be a Christian and a citizen of this country. Mr. Jones may be an unbeliever, and also a citizen. But if Mr. Smith should go to Great Britain his Christianity would not make him a citizen of that professedly Christian nation. If Mr. Jones went with him they would stand precisely on the same footing, that of aliens. And should they wish to become citizens each would have to comply with the same requirements of statute law. One’s Christianity does not, therefore, affect the nature of one’s civil citizenship; it can not from the simple fact that Christianity is a matter of motive, heart, essence, and life, while civil citizenship is a matter of civil law and the outward observance of the forms thereof. A living law of Christianity is, “Thou shalt not covet,” mighty through faith in Christ to accomplish all that is commanded, but if it were placed upon the civil statute-book it would not be a Christian law. It would be merely a form of words without the life, having no more relation to the living law of God than would a statue of Jesus to the living eternal Son of God.

What Is Christian Citizenship?

Christian Citizenship is the citizenship derived from Christ, that which we get by virtue of our relationship to him. He is from above. He is “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” John 1:18. He was the One who “came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” John 3:13.

He came to a world which had revolted against heaven, and was ruled over by Satan, “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). And while God overrules in all the kingdoms of men, yet in the principles and policies which obtain, in the selfish ambitions which control, in all the imperfection of government in its very nature and essence, the kingdoms of this world are not the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. The time when

that shall be will not occur till all earthly rule is utterly destroyed, the kingdoms of the world broken as the dust, and upon a renovated earth, in a city built without hands, shall Jesus Christ begin his own perfect, eternal reign of love and life. Ps. 2:7–9; Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; 7:27; Heb. 11:10; 13:14; Rev. 11:15; 22:3. It need scarcely be said that the word “heathen” in Ps. 2:1, 8 means “nations,” the original word being translated nation and nations more than three hundred times, among which are Ps. 33:12; Isa. 26:2; Zeph. 2:1. See also Revised Version.

The object of Jesus Christ in coming to this world, of sending his Gospel, his messengers, his ambassadors to the nations of earth, is “to take out of them a people for his name.” Acts 15:14. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12, 13. Here is the foundation of Christian citizenship. It comes not by physical birth, not by the choice of the flesh, not by the wills or laws of men. It comes from a heavenly birthright, by being begotten of God, “born from above.” John 3:3–5.

To such Jesus said: “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:19, R. V. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:16. How Jesus Christ was not of the world as respects the kingdoms and governments of men is shown in his words to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36. He was not in any way to be involved in the politics or methods of civil government. See John 6:15; Luke 12:13, 14; Matt. 26:51–53.

He was from above. More than this, while sojourning in earth he dwelt “in the bosom of the Father,” “the Son of man which is in heaven.” There was his citizenship, his country, in nature like his own. To that heavenly commonwealth he calls all the sinful of earth, now aliens as respects his government. To those who receive that call he says by inspiration: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises [of this or that nation? this or that party? this or that policy?—No, but] of HIM who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. While in the world unconverted, God says to them, “Ye were . . . aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; but now in Christ Jesus,” having his one Spirit, “ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” Eph. 2:12–20. This is the citizenship of Jesus Christ, this is Christian citizenship. It is because of this heavenly birthright and due allegiance that we are exhorted to love God with all the heart, might, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves; for thus loving God and sustaining such a relation to the kingdom of heaven, we would seek to win our neighbor to the same blessed allegiance. Loving God with all the heart, might, mind, and soul, we have not time to dabble in the politics of the world. “For our citizenship [politeuma] is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.” Phil. 3:20, 21, R. V.

What then?—“Only let your manner of life [politeuo, your action as a citizen] be worthy of the Gospel of Christ; . . . with one soul striving for the faith of the Gospel.” Phil. 1:27, R. V. This is to walk as Christ walked. “Because as he is, so are we in this world.” “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 4:17; 2:6. This is Christian citizenship, the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. It is not to justify our desires by the mistakes or the work of his servants in past generations. The question should be, What does the Gospel teach? What was the example of Jesus Christ? What would he do according to that example and teaching were he here now? What would Jesus Christ—the same yesterday, to-day, and forever—do? It is not, What did Paul do on a special occasion? It is not, What did Daniel, the captive servant, do when put in certain positions by the kings of Babylon and Persia? It is, What did Jesus Christ do? What does his Word teach me to do?

Those in whom that Word wrought in the past counted not themselves citizens of any country. They “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” that they sought “a country,” “a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.” Heb. 11:13–16. Of that country and city they are citizens, and to that citizenship they invite all, irrespective of race or nation.

What a blessing is this to the Christian! He is tied to no race or land. Like Abraham of old, he is called out from his country, from his kindred, and from his father’s house. Gen. 12:1. He is a friend to all, he is prejudiced against none. He will work and pray for white and black, for brown or yellow, for American or Chinese, for Armenian or Turk. All are the purchase of Christ’s blood; to all is the Christian a debtor to tell them of the better land, the better city, the better citizenship, the better King.

“Narrow” is such a view?—Nay, it is as broad as heaven. “Cramping” to ideas is it?—Nay, it is a glass from God’s own laboratory, which corrects all the aberrations of political science or political expedients or schemes. It shows the political games, in which men see so much or so little, just as they are seen in the light of God’s truth. And over and above all, it reveals God’s working among men for the salvation of his people, despite all the political schemes of Satan—a work as much greater than all political work as eternity is greater than time. He who possesses this heavenly citizenship is of more value to a country, tho he never vote or belong to a political party, than the most active politician. He carries on his heart the salvation of all. He labors to lift all from selfishness and carnality to the high plain of rectitude and spirituality. The effect of his life and example are ever uplifting. Grand, glorious, and eternal is the kingdom of our God, and of it all may, through Jesus Christ, be citizens.