Is it right that a believer should be a politician? This is the question before us. And, to treat the
matter clearly, let me state some points which belong to such a character, if they are not the very
conception of it.

What I understand by a politician, is one who takes a considerable and constant interest in the civil
government of his own country, and of the world at large. He praises the rulers when he thinks
they deserve it, and condemns them when, as he believes, they govern amiss. He Hits up his voice
against injustice, fraud, deception, corruption, restraints on liberty. He will resist what is evil as
far as he may by law. He exercises every civil privilege to which he is entitled to influence the
government of his country. If opportunity were offered, he would take office and power in the
world, and exercise it for his fellow-citizens’ benefit.

I. How, then, can we tell whether this is right in a believer or not? By looking to Jesus as our
pattern. His life is recorded to this end_"Leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps"
(1 Peter 2:21). Everything He did was pleasing to His Father. "I do always those things that please
Him" (John 8:29; Matt. 17:5); and, since every perfection was found in Jesus, whatever He did
not do or sanction is not pleasing to God.

Was Jesus, then, a politician? Did He take any interest in the political government of His country?
Did He pass judgment on the persons or measures of the civil rulers of Palestine? Did He stand
up for the politically oppressed, and rebuke the political oppressor? Did He exercise authority of
any kind in civil matters?

1. His conduct is the very reverse of the politician’s. Had He been one, His political feelings must
have been peculiarly drawn out by the circumstances of the day. In His days the last shadow of
Jewish liberty departed, and His country was oppressed beneath the iron gauntlet of Rome. Such
a state of things would have greatly aroused the independent citizen, the lover of liberty. In the
gospels we only deduce the political changes of the land from the most distant hints of the
narrative.

2. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, is slain through the desire of an adulterous princess
and by the orders of an ungodly king. How does Jesus meet the event? Does He lift up His voice
against the oppressor and the murder? No. John is imprisoned, but Jesus speaks not of the
injustice; he is murdered, but He utters no cry against the cruelty or tyranny of Herod. John’s
"disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard
of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart" (Matt. 14:10-13). He was silent. The
Saviour was no politician.

3. Take another incident. "There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galileans,
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" (Luke 13:1). A politician would have been
on fire at this national outrage. Religious antipathies met with political. Here was a field whereon
to inveigh against Roman cruelty, and to rouse the Jews against a tyranny that trampled on the true
religion. A pagan profaning with bloody hands the worship of the true God! What would the

politicians of our day have said had a party of government troops fired into a chapel while people
were at worship, and shot some dead while on their knees? Would not the politician account it
almost treason to be calm?

What is Jesus’ reply? "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The politics of the question
are wholly passed by; the moral and spiritual view of the matter is alone regarded. This is a most
decisive case. Doubtless it made the blood of every native Jew boil with rage. But Jesus drops no
word of indignation against the governor’s crime, nor applauds the Galileans as martyrs for their
country. Jesus, then, was no politician.

4. A question is raised by His countrymen and referred for His decision_whether it was lawful
to pay tribute to the Roman emperor or not. This critical question must have drawn out the
politician. Involved in it lay the right of the Romans to rule Judea, and impose taxes at their will.
The oppressions of the governor were before His eyes. The Caesar that swayed the scepter was
profligate, cruel, a murderer. Yet Jesus bids the Jews pay tribute even to an idolater, and though
the emperor might apply the money to the support of idolatry.

Jesus, then, was not a politician. Am I a disciple of His? Then neither am I to be a politician. "It
is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master." If Jesus did not intermeddle in civil
government, it is because such conduct would not be pleasing to God. Jesus neither acted
politically Himself, nor sanctioned it in others. To be engaged in politics, therefore, either as an
actor or speaker, is no part of my duty as a Christian. His perfection is my pattern; and therefore
it becomes me to refuse, as pointedly as He did, to mingle in politics; for this is my calling, to be
not of the world, even as Jesus was not of the world (John 17:14).

II. But did not Paul plead his Roman citizenship when they were about to scourge him? Did he
not, when his life was in danger, appeal unto Caesar? True, and the Christian is permitted,
therefore, when on his trial, to plead the provisions afforded by the law to save himself from death
or injurious treatment. But neither of these points form part of the character of a politician, such
as we have described him.

Take the strongest case. Paul and Silas are dragged by interested men before the rulers of Philippi.
The magistrates, without any form of trial, scourge them and thrust them into prison (Acts 16:19-
24). What would a politician have done in such a case? Would he not have thought it due to his
Roman citizenship to carry the cause to Rome, and to make an example of these tyrannical
magistrates, that all throughout the empire might know that the rights of a citizen were not to be
trampled on? Does Paul do so? No. He requires, indeed, that the magistrates should not dismiss
them privately, but come themselves and set them free. But he exacts no apology; he lays no
information against them. This would have been to act the politician, and this he does not do.

III. Many of the principles put forth in the epistles decide the present question.

1. What is the Christian’s position? He is a "stranger and pilgrim upon earth" (Heb. 11:13-16;
1 Peter 2:11). Then he has no inclination, right, or title to political power. By profession he
surrenders it. Who may take part in the government of a country? Natives only, not strangers.
What has an Englishman, living in France, to do with the government of France? The Christian
is, moreover, a pilgrim, and has less reason still. If a stranger may not interfere in the policy of
a foreign country, much less one who is not even residing in it, but merely passing through it on
his way to another land. To meddle with politics, then, is to put off our character as strangers and
pilgrims.

2. To take up the politician’s character blinds the Christian as to his true place before God, and
mars the testimony which he ought to give to the world. The witness of the Holy Spirit to the
world (which, therefore, the believer is to take up and manifest by his word and life) is that the
world is sinful because it believes not on Jesus, and that it is under condemnation, together with

its prince, only spared from day to day by the patience of a longsuffering God (John 16). The
Christian is to testify that the Lord Jesus is coming to execute upon it the due vengeance for its
iniquity, and that it becomes all to flee from the midst of it to Christ. All who do thus flee to
Christ become part of His Church which is not of the world but gathered out from it.

3. But if the Christian may not rightfully use his political privileges as the private citizen, much
less may he take office in the world. But it is said, What! are not Christians the fittest persons to
hold power? No, they are of all the most unfit. For they have a Master to serve whose laws are
quite opposed in principle to those of the world. And the magistrate must execute the world’s
laws, as being the world’s servant. The law of the world, when at its highest perfection, is strict
justice. But Christ has to His disciples repealed this, and taught us mercy as our rule (Matt. 5:38-
48). Could any worldly government act out the Sermon on the Mount? When one of its citizens
had been assaulted and robbed, could it dismiss the convicted robber because the Saviour
commands us not to resist, or to avenge evil? Its principle is, "Punish according to the offense,"
and by that it abides. If so, the Christian (if he understands his place) cannot be a judge or wield
the power of the world’s law.

4. The Epistles show how the Christian is to conduct himself as a father, a master, a subject. But
no rules are given to him as a magistrate or citizen. What must we infer, then? That God does not
recognize Christians as acting for Him in either of these two conditions. The politician rebukes
the real or supposed misgovernors of his country. The Christian is to "speak evil of no man; to
be no brawler, but gentle." He is not to despise government, or speak evil of dignities, or to bring
against them railing accusations (2 Peter 2:10,11; Jude). He is to "show all meekness unto all
men."

5. To the extent that the Christian is a politician, his heart is engaged with the things of the world.
A new thorn is planted in his breast to choke the good seed and make it unfruitful. A new weight
is hung about his neck to hinder him in his race. He is a soldier of Christ, who, contrary to his
Captain’s will and pleasure, is entangling "himself with the affairs of this life" (2 Tim. 2:3,4). He
has descended to the world’s level, and has drunk into its spirit.

Let me exhort the believer, then, to surrender all interference in politics. Your concern is the
kingdom of God, your city the one to come, your citizenship in heaven. Refrain from the world’s
politics, for Jesus was no politician. Refrain, else you mar your witness to the world that it is evil
and lying under judgment. Are you not a stranger and pilgrim? Then meddle not with that world
which you have left.

The world is ripening for judgment, and all your efforts cannot improve it in God’s sight. Gather
out from its doomed streets as many as you can, but leave the city alone. Lot cannot mend Sodom,
but Sodom can, indeed, will corrupt Lot.