Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 123:489 (Jan 1966)
Article: The Christian in World Affairs Part IV: Involvement
Author: Clyde W. Taylor

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BSac 123:489 (Jan 66) p. 15

The Christian in World Affairs
Part IV:
Involvement

Clyde W. Taylor

In concluding the series of lectures perhaps no other word is as significant at this point when we discuss the Christian and world affairs as the word involvement. Some time ago I heard a layman speak at a church meeting concerning the work they were doing with delinquents in one of our large cities in America, and he pointed out that one of the biggest problems was to get Christians involved. He used John 3:16 and gave it a rather unusual twist when he said: “God so loved the world that he became involved.”

This, of course, is a mistranslation of Scripture, but it conveys the idea that he wanted to get across. Not only are we concerned here with the possibility of involvement, but the fact that it is essential that we become involved. We might remind ourselves again, of course, that this concerns the Christians in the world as given in John 17, where they are in the world but not of it.

Given the circumstances of the New Testament, it is not surprising that there is little in it concerning involvement of Christians. We are told that the gospel invaded the Caesar household and, without a doubt, as the gospel spread it involved many officials of the imperial regime and eventually the professed conversion of the emperor himself. In the Old Testament, however, we have a number of illustrations indicating that God seems to be pleased with the involvement of His children in public affairs. This was the case of Joseph who served with difficulty, but without compromise, of Moses, and years later of Daniel, with both Joseph and Daniel serving in corrupt regimes. This leads us, therefore, in conclusion, to have a look at three major areas of concern at this point:

BSac 123:489 (Jan 66) p. 16

(1) The problems of Christians in their personal and social affairs, (2) The problems that would be peculiar to politics, (3) The problems having to do with the power of position and its temptation.

Now regarding the problems in social and economic areas, let us consider for a moment the problems of a Christian entering government foreign service. We have our seminar in Washington each year for students from our Christian arts colleges to encourage them to consider before God the possibility that it might be His will for them to enter government service and we endeavor to give them a wide range or view of the possibility of such service. Some of these have gone into foreign service. The minute they move into foreign service, particularly going overseas, they are not only involved in customary association of an office that contains all ...

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