Part 1 of 5 of the theme 'Christian and politics' by Gijs van den Brink
Were believers politically active in the time of Jesus and the apostles? Christians give different answers to this question. Before we can say anything about this, we must first be clear about what we mean by "politics. When we speak of politics, what do we mean by it? And does the word or a derivative of it appear in the NT? And what is the meaning then? It is important to know that we are talking about the same thing, otherwise we will talk past each other.
'Definitions'
Three definitions of politics are broadly given.
- Politics is the pursuit of a good society. This definition goes back to ancient Greece (Plato, Aristotle).
- Politics as the struggle for power. In Europe, it was primarily the Italian historian Machiavelli (1469-1527) who elaborated on being political in this direction.
- Politics as the creation and effect of public policy. Government and administration play a key role here because they turn wishes, demands, interests, etc. from society into binding decisions through a process of selection, aggregation and choice.
politeuō in the NT
The second definition is a very popular idea in our time. The third is common among politicians and administrators. But the first has the oldest papers, fits best with word usage politeuo in the NT (behaving as citizens) and corresponds to the way the apostles speak about it. Politics, at its core, is how people interact and how decisions are made in a community.
Derived from politēs 'citizen; fellow citizen' comes the verb politeuō occurs in the NT only in the broader sense of "behaving (as a citizen)," where the element of behaving in relation to others, as part of a community, is still recognizable. In Acts 23:1 Paul, in his interrogation by the Sanhedrin, says the following: 'Brethren, all my life to this day I have behaved as a citizen (pepoliteumai) with a perfectly clear conscience before God. This refers to good "conduct in public. And in Phil. 1:27 Paul says "But you must live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Literally, "Conduct yourselves (politeuesthe) as a citizen, worthy of the Gospel of Christ. One might say that this is about behaving with dignity as befits someone with heavenly citizenship.
So Paul and Luke speak of politics in the sense of meaning 1 "behaving as a (good) citizen. Viewed this way, politics is something in which everyone is involved and we are all politically active.
Author: Gijs van den Brink
From: Study Bible Magazine
This is part 1 of 5 brief blog on the topic of "Christian and politics" from Study Bible Magazine, Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!
