What does the Bible have to say about the church and the state?

Oliver O’Donovan describes the political realm as a “secondary theater of witness” to God’s glory (O’Donovan, The Ways of Judgment). God establishes our political leaders and our governments. The nations all belong to God. While most rulers would not recognize God’s sovereignty, the rulers’ role is to reflect the order God has established by enacting justice and restraining evil.

The political realm is not trivial. It is not something Christians should ignore or disrespect. As Peter says, “Honor everyone, Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Pet 2:17). Christians honor the emperor within the broader hierarchy in which the emperor is situated. Our ultimate allegiance is to God, so we don’t honor the emperor to such an extent that we deny God; however, as God’s representative charged with restraining evil and maintaining order, Christians participate as “good citizens” who seek to follow the nation’s laws, work within the nation’s systems, and respect the nation’s political leaders unless or until doing so hinders us from accomplishing our Christian mission.

Perhaps the primary challenge we face as Christians today in the political realm is the loss of a Christian first mentality. My concern is that we’ve opted to “follow Apollos” or to divide ourselves as the body of Christ according to certain political views and candidates. While we may not see church splits, political conversations and positions tend to be divisive. It seems to me that we are making bets on the political realm that should be placed on discipleship. Our advocacy in the political realm is not unnecessary; however, such advocacy is only a small component of what Christians can and should be doing. I don’t find it to be overstating the case in pointing to the Great Commission. We are to make disciples. Along the way, our discipleship might require that we seek justice and love mercy in the political realm, but such actions need to arise from and be nested within strong discipleship. If not, my concern is that we will run the risk of drifting away from an identity rooted in Christ and toward an identity rooted in something else (1 Cor 1:10–17; 3:1–9; Gal 2:20).