The Limits of Politics (5)

And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and thatyou did not come within the days appointed, and thatthe Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.” 1 Samuel 13.11-13

Good, and not good
Israel was about to engage a major battle with her arch-enemy, the Philistines. Samuel had instructed Saul that, before the people should go into battle, they should make an offering to the Lord. Samuel explained that he would come to Gilgal to make that offering, and Saul should wait for him there.

But Saul became nervous, watching the clock for Samuel to arrive. Finally, he could bear it no more, and he “forced” himself to make the offering Samuel had promised to make, contrary to what God had revealed to him.

It was good for the offering to be made; it was not good for the king to make it. Here is a lesson for us concerning the limits of political power: It is beyond the scope of politics for government to try to make its people good by overstepping the bounds of their legitimate responsibility, according to God’s Word.

Allowing the conditions of goodness
Is it good for people to work? Indeed it is. But it is not good for government to force people to work or to sustain them if they refuse to work.

Is it good for people to be upright before the Lord? Indeed it is. But it is not good for government to require people to go to church, give to charities, or share their possessions with others.

Is it good for people to develop and conserve the environment around them? Surely it is. But it is not good for politicians to require that people do so in any particular manner, or to assume primary responsibility for “saving” the environment.

Government and politicians must ensure a social order that allows the conditions of goodness to emerge as people take up their responsibilities to God and one another. But government must not presume to make people good.

Encroachments
Consider some ways that our own government encroaches on this area of individual responsibility: Our government tries to force the wealthy to be good by requiring them to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than others pay.

Politicians try to make us good by requiring that we attend school up to a certain age, and then requiring people to pay for those schools, rather than allowing communities and parents to construct and manage schools as they freely choose.

Politicians require us to support government-created jobs for people who cannot find or create them on their own. Politicians, trying to make other nations into good nations like ours, force us to be good to dictators by giving them billions of dollars in foreign aid, large chunks of which end up in the pockets of the dictators, their families, and their cronies. Or they impose tariffs on other governments whom they regard as not being good to American consumers.

Governments try to make us be good by requiring that we recycle certain waste products. Politicians require us to be good by limiting the places we might smoke a cigar or the size of a soft drink we might purchase. And the list goes on.

The only way politicians can make us be good is when they usurp our individual responsibility to be good and force us to conform, by law, to their definitions of what makes for a good society. This is beyond the scope of what politics can do. Certain laws, of course, make us act in ways that are good because God understands such laws to be essential to basic social order. Beyond those laws – which mark out the Biblical parameters of justice – government runs the risk of usurping rather than enforcing divine standards.

Politicians can make us conform to certain codes of behavior beyond what God requires, but in doing so they undermine our ability to act in a good manner as free and responsible individuals. Instead of making us good, government makes us angry by trying to force us into a mold of “goodness” with which many do not agree, or which they prefer to adopt on their own initiative and in their own freely-chosen manner.

The contributions that people make to goodness in a society must arise freely, from within themselves, from their sense of upright responsibility to God and their neighbor. Government must so order society as to allow for and even encourage the attainment of goodness. But it is beyond the power – or the privilege – of government and politicians to compel their people to conform to standards of goodness that encroach on their freedoms and negate their responsibilities before the Lord.

For reflection
1.      Government must enforce standards of goodness as these relate to the basic requirements of justice. Where shall governments look to find such standards?

2.      How can we know when a government has gone beyond its divine mandate to promote goodness to trying to make its citizens good?

3.      But what if people choose not to show love for their neighbors, or to do what is good? Is it a crime not to be charitable, or to care about the needs of the poor? What is the role of the Church in a situation where many people choose not to love their neighbors as themselves?

Next steps: What do your friends or co-workers think? Is it government’s responsibility to make us good, or simply to encourage goodness? Ask a few of the people in your life sphere.

T. M. Moore

We’re pleased to bring ReVision to you daily, and ReVision studies each week in PDF at no charge. Please visit our website, www.ailbe.org to learn about the many study topics available. Your gifts to The Fellowship of Ailbe make this ministry possible. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Dr., Essex Junction, VT 05452.

This week’s study, The Limits of Politics, is part 3 of a 5-part series on The King’s Heart, a Biblical view of government and politics, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We cannot understand God’s view of government, or how to function in a political environment apart from faith in King Jesus and His rule. Order T. M.’s books The Kingship of Jesus  and The Ground for Christian Ethics to supplement our studies of God and government..

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.