Nathan E. Lewis

“Common Grace and Christian Civility”
Titus 3: 1-2 and I Peter 2:11-17

The apostle Peter viewed the Christian community to be a band of pilgrims, foreign aliens traveling through the world of the first century under the control of the Roman Empire’s order and peace. He writes in (11): “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles…” Nearly five hundred years before Peter, the prophet Jeremiah, wrote a letter to the elders, priests, and prophets of Israel in exile, living in Babylon. Jeremiah instructed them to build houses and settle down, planting gardens and giving their daughters and sons in marriage. They were to continue to fulfill the cultural mandate in Babylon, including their increase in number. They were not to do so as a ghetto, separated from the Babylonians. Jeremiah writes the very commands of the Lord: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you will prosper. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty the God of Israel says.” The final sentence in which God assures his people that this is truly his design for them is heartening to those of us who struggle to properly place ourselves in a post-Christian America.
For a relatively brief period of history, the nation of Israel existed as a theocracy. Prior to the rise of her kings, Israel was a wandering community. The house of God was a tent and his people lived in tents. The Father of Israel, Abraham, never owned any land but for the cave of Macpelah, a burial site. The Apostle Peter likens the church in these last days to the wandering and exiled Israel. As the Holy Scriptures unfold, the nation of Israel becomes a beautiful picture of heaven. Israel as wanderers in the wilderness then as foreign aliens living in Babylon becomes the motif for the church in these last days.
Twenty-first century America is undeniably a post-Christian, if not a pre-Christian society. How do we view our cities and present culture? Are we more like Babylon than Jerusalem? What does God the Almighty have to say to us concerning our living in Oregon? His message for us is the same as the message delivered to exiled Israel in Babylon. God’s instruction on how to live in Oregon in the twenty-first century is the same as Peter and Paul’s instructions to the first century church living under the authority of Rome.
Paul writes a letter to Titus instructing him on his mission to establish the church on the Island of Crete, an unwieldy, raucous community. Paul describes them in the words of their own Cretan poet: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” As the first Pastor of the church of Crete, Titus is to train Christians to live a distinctly different life, a holy life, separate in worldview, devotion and behavior but next door to non-Christian neighbors, interacting with them toward the betterment of the whole island community. Paul instructs us to live in Oregon on two levels of engagement: 1) We are to submissively work toward the betterment of the larger society and 2) We are to live virtuous lives toward the betterment of our neighbors. I first discovered these two levels of engagement as I read Richard Mouw’s treatment of I Peter 2:11-17 in his book, He Shines in All That’s Fair. Christian civility is thus more than our being polite in the presence of people we loathe in a community or city we find hellish. Christian civility, informed by the doctrine of common grace is this engagement on two levels.
Ever since Samuel Rutherford wrote Lex Rex we have become accustomed to applying Romans 13, Titus 3 and I Peter to our submission to governmental authorities, to our conscientious objecting, and to our civil disobedience. This is a valid view, line of reasoning and application of one aspect of the Apostles’ teaching in these texts. Paul’s one lengthy sentence instructing Titus moves us down a different path than Rutherford blazed for us in his treatment of Romans 13. Paul instructs Titus to train Cretans to be law-abiding and productive citizens. I would guess that were a Cretan to stumble into Bill and Ted’s telephone booth time machine and land in 21st century Oregon, we would not be able to distinguish him from an Oregonian on Max. Were an Oregonian to hop into the machine and travel backwards into first century Crete, he might find himself to be quite at home, discovering little difference. And so, Paul’s instruction is perfectly suited to our situation. We need to be reminded and exhorted to be law-abiding and productive citizens. We are to submissively work toward the betterment of the larger society. Notice that Paul does not commend a passive submission or obedience. “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.” These three phrases are inseparable. One cannot say, “I’ve completed number one but not number three.” To submit means to live under authority peacefully and productively. To obey means to act under authority gladly and fruitfully. To be ready for every good work is the proof and outworking of submission and obedience. The doctrine of common grace moves us to a Christian civility, an active and productive contribution to the larger society. Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 -1905 called his fellow Christians “to continually expand the dominance of nobler and purer ideals in civil society by the courageous action of its members in every area of life.” Kuyper developed what is known as “sphere sovereignty,” the divine institutions of family, church, and state possessing distinct authority, responsibilities, and influence, equal to each other directed by God. (Incidentally, the Reformed church and scholarship movement prior to Kuyper, recognized two divine institutions: Church and State. Kuyper was the first in our historical movement to suggest the third divine institution of the family.) Christians are called to operate toward divine glory in all three institutions for the societal good. Each sphere has its own created integrity and function.
Secondly, we are to live virtuous lives toward the betterment of our neighbors resulting in the glory of God. We do so in all three spheres – family, church, and state. Paul instructs us: “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” The entire letter to Titus is instructive, quite relevant in its application of us as peacemakers. We are not to merely develop a personal piety resulting in individual Christians, who are rich in virtue. Our virtue must inform the manner in which we speak to others and commend the ungodly for their contributions flowing from common grace. Peter develops this instruction emphasizing our good deeds. He refers to Jesus’ sermon recorded in Matthew 5 where the church is called to shine the light of Christ to such intensity that the non-Christian would “see our good works and glorify our heavenly Father.” Peter writes in (12): “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Peter warns us that even as we are courteous, polite and generally supportive of our neighbors, we will suffer false accusations. Nevertheless, we keep as our goal the glory of God, rejoicing in his triumph among all people groups and in all creation. In (15) Peter says, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
Peter then reminds us that we are truly free in Christ: (16) “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” Christian civility silences our usual conversations in the church about how wicked the world is and how our society and neighbors are slipping down into godless living. Such sentiments are replaced with conversations about our service unto God. Too many of us Christians have discussed whether or not our complete salvation remains in tact even as we sin. Paul writes to the church at Rome: “Should we sin that grace may abound? May it never be!” Rather, he says to the church at Philippi, “Work our your salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.”
Peter concludes his paragraph with four succinct commands carefully ordered: the first is founded in common grace; the second and third are founded in the covenant of special grace; the final is founded in common grace. All four inform Christian civility: “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” For some of us, eight years of the Bush administration was a long, long struggle in submission, obedience, and work for the societal good. But President Bush in no way came close to the tyranny of the Roman emperors, under which Jesus and the apostles lived. For some of us President Obama is all rhetoric and little change with the potential of reversing civil liberties. But President Obama is no Nero, Valerian or Diocletian. The early church fathers persevered under these tyrants. While we may be disappointed with the decline of the United States of America and while we are called to do everything in our strength to better our society, we are nonetheless called to do so honoring our rulers.
I recommend to you Os Guiness’ book, The Case for Civility. He writes: “Civility is a key not only to civil society but to civilization itself.” He outlines a plan to restore the public square in America, founded upon the U.S. Constitution preserving “the right to be wrong.” As an example, he includes an interesting hypothetical interchange with Richard Dawkins:
“Some people resist the notion of a civil public square because they associate it with a false tolerance….Respect a person’s right to believe what he or she decides to believe, the argument goes, and you have to accept their position and turn a blind eye to things that are untrue and dangerous. Once a feature of fundamentalist suspicions, this fear can now be heard from secularists. Richard Dawkins writes in “The God Delusion,” ‘As long as we accept the principle that religious faith must be respected simply because it is religious faith, it is hard to withhold respect from the faith of Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers. The alernative, one so transparent that it should need no urging, is to abandon the principle of automatic respect for religious faith.’ Not so. Dawkins is confusing a person’s right to believe something and what it is they believe. And his error lies behind what is an abhorrent feature of the new atheism: its double intolerance and its extremism as a counter to extremism….Dawkins is openly intolerant of those he calls ‘faithheads,’ whom he considers religiously deluded and his position comes close to the medieval maxim that ‘error has no rights.’” Os Guinness continues to show how we can and must created a civil public square in which we all have the right to be wrong.
As we live according to the gospel, we remember that our identity is first and foremost in Christ, our home is the heavenly Zion, and our task is to honor everyone; love the brotherhood; fear God; and honor the emperor. Indeed “Christian civility” is not an oxymoron; it is a redundant description of the true followers of Jesus.