NO "ENTANGLING ALLIANCES."
IN political circles we are hearing much about "entangling alliances." In the speeches in Congress the expression frequently occurs as a warning to the government not to enter into certain proposed compacts with foreign powers that may prove embarrassing in the future. While such treaties do engender difficult problems in the political world, as has been demonstrated in the past, it is much more dangerous to all classes when the church of God makes such alliances with the governments of earth, and when individual Christians enter into partnership with the world, or commit themselves to the policies of worldly associations. The Lord has given His people special directions on this subject:— "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 2 Cor. 6:14-18. In the face of this assurance, there can be no excuse for any one who has any faith at all in the Word of God to seek help or protection from any worldly alliance. There is no common ground of affiliation; "for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." Rom. 8:5. The character and influence of such union or partnership or political association is again expressed, in 2 Tim. 2:3, 4:— "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Note that the Christian soldier is to "endure hardness." It is not in place for him to ally himself with this, that, or the other worldly institution, or to call upon the civil government to pass special laws making it "easy for him to do right and hard to do wrong." Human laws having this object in view invariably do just the reverse. They are always entangling alliances between hypocrisy and the world. The only alliance that can make it "easy to do right and hard to do wrong" is an alliance of the individual conscience with the Spirit of God. The apostle Paul, before he was converted, found it not only hard, but impossible to do right; and no law could help him out of the trouble. Even the law of God—which he acknowledged to be "holy" and "just" and "good," and which David had said was "perfect," and which Christ had said could not "pass away"—only made it harder for him to do right every time he sought its aid. The trouble was in the fact that the law itself was the standard of right; but it was spiritual, and Paul was carnal. As long as he was in that condition, nothing—absolutely nothing—could make it easy for him to do right. Of that time and condition he said, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Rom. 7:18. The fault here was not the lack of law to make it easy, but there was no good thing in him. But there came a change—not in God's law nor by the enactment of civil law—which brought rejoicing instead of despair to Paul. The change was in Paul himself, through faith in Jesus Christ. While he had a carnal mind he was at enmity with God. Of such a mind he says, "It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Chapter 8:7. But the Spirit of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, works out a different condition. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." Chapter 5:1. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17. Now it is easy for Paul to do right, and hard for him to do wrong; but it has not been brought about by any civil law. It is by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" that he has been enabled to do right at all. And God sent His Son in the flesh to do what even His own righteous law could not do, namely, "that the righteousness of the law [doing right] might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:1-4. This is the only power that can make it "easy to do right, and hard to do wrong." As long as Paul, or any one else, would hold on to his faith in Christ, it would be just as hard to do wrong as it was before for him to do right. This is shown in his declaration, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." Verses 38, 39. Nor can it be that any "entangling alliance" with civil government can make easy surroundings for the one who does right from a Scripture standpoint—which means to "fear God, and keep His commandments." For "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12. Civil government was against Christ, and against the apostles, and against all Christians for the first three centuries. They suffered all manner of cruelties, yet there is no record of a single effort to secure civil laws for the amelioration of their condition. No; they endured hardships, as Paul advises; in patience they possessed their souls, as Christ enjoins. "Ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Matt. 10:22. And when the government undertook to make it easy for the nominal church to do what it called right, and hard for "heretics" to do what "the church" said was wrong, the true people of God suffered for over twelve centuries such persecution as had never before been known. Such was the result of an "entangling alliance" between the church and the State of Rome. But has the government no duty in the matter of protecting Christians in their rights?—Certainly, that is what civil government is for, to protect all in their rights, Christians as well as other persons, and other persons as well as Christians. Has the civil government no duty toward the church?—Yes, its duty is to let the church alone. The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States expresses the idea exactly: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The State shall neither establish nor prohibit the "free exercise" of religion. In other words, the State shall make no "entangling alliances" with the church. The church is a government foreign to that of the State. The true church is in the world, but not of it. See John 17:11-18. All that the church of Christ asks is free exercise, and the government can well afford to allow it free exercise; for those who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" will always render to Caesar his due, and never will ask for special legislation. The true church of God never will seek any "entangling alliance" with the State, and no proper civil government ever will accept a union with the church.