Whenever I feel like whining about how the world works, there's a temptation for me to go to one extreme and wholly villify something like, say, "The Market", or else for my readers to likewise perceive me as doing such. Alternately, there is a temptation I also find to over-glorify some element of culture, such as "The Family" or "Government" as something worth defending even to the point of being nasty about it.
Really, these things are neither wholly good nor wholly bad.
They are what Paul variously calls the principalities, powers, rulers, thrones, and authorities. Good scholars are divided as to whether these are sentient supernatural beings or more functions which govern the universe. I'm inclined toward a bit of both. Either way, we know that they were made "good" to do good (Col 1:16) by God but are now fallen and do naughty things. These Powers include a lot -- government, family, nationality, country, mathematics, language, the market, ideologies and "-isms", organized religion, and a host of others. We know that they crucified our Lord (1 Cor 2:8), and in the same breath we must confess that they are instituted for our good (Romans 13:1-8).
King Jesus tells us that our allegiance is to Him, and no other. Not to family, not to the government, not to communism or capitalism, not to freedom or democracy, not to education, not to America, not to religion. No, HE alone is Lord and King over all of them. The King now sits "at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him." (1 Peter 3:22), and has made a public spectacle of them by dying on the cross (Col 2:15).
We must neither abolish nor avowedly defend any of them. When we seek either, we suffer the wrath that comes when we rebel against God.
It's an awful tension, isn't it? Especially in a culture and political climate which likes to polarize us on how we engage the Powers!
Over the next few posts, we'll try to form a view of contemporary principalities and powers which are both critical and commending. We'll look at: Government, Organized Religion, Nationality/Country, and The Market.
This will be good for me, hopefully, because I have been on both sides of belligerently loving and hating all of the above, and don't quite know what to do with it all now. Perhaps some of you can relate...
Comments (1)
Brandon,
Thanks for writing this! I must admit, this is a tension that I've been struggling with lately, and too often, failing.
I've discovered that a critique demands an alterative, but am just learning that it demands grace as well.
I look forward to your thoughts on these issues and am excited by the prospect of the first-ever mention of "organized religion" in a not-wholly-negative sense.
- Scott
Posted by Scott Andreas | September 25, 2006 3:28 PM
Posted on September 25, 2006 15:28