THE CHURCH AND POLITICS

This week's dose is dedicated to Nigerians as we celebrated another year of independence. 

I know there was so much expectation in the 2023 general elections. Hope was dashed as far as many were concerned, particularly the youths.  Many picked on the church and her leaders who decided not to meddle into who to vote for and not to vote for during the elections. Infact, I saw how some people threatened to leave the church if some of our leaders do not endorse a particular candidate. 

However, the church has no direct business in politics  of the country (as this is not the purpose of the local assembly) but in nation building. This is important to note as a believer committed to a local assembly. 

I need you to first understand that when we talk about a nation, it is not referring to a country as a geographical location. It is an ideology; a way of life. It is the embodiment of character, nature and lifestyle that a people carry even when they are not in the geographical expression of their birth.

Do you remember what the scriptures said about Rebekah’s pregnancy?

“And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manners of people shall be separated from thy bowels…” Gen 25:23a

This is a description of two people who will be a type of a kind of life. They are from same belly, but, they are two nations because they represented two different expressions of a people who will come forth in the scheme of prophecy; it is not a government.

Daniel and his friends were exiled in Babylon. This is naturally a condition of discomfort that makes any man look for every means to find safety and acceptance before his captors.

The king ordered that some of them were selected, trained and made ready to come before him with the intention of serving on his team. Daniel and his friends came out exceptional and they were enlisted.  Although these men had left Jerusalem, they were no longer where the Ark of the Covenant was, but the Ark was practically living in them.

Having been selected as the privileged ones, the king ordered they were well fed by different delicacies. This was a treatment of honor in a strange land. A rare privilege many will fight to have. Daniel and his peers had a nation in them. They had been built into a nation of God. They were not in Jerusalem but the ideology of Jerusalem goes everywhere with them- it was a consciousness of honor to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That was the nation built in them.  

“But Daniel made up his mind not to eat the food and wine given to them by the King. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead” Dan 1:8

 

The refusal to eat the kings’ meal wasn’t because it was necessarily a sin but the nation in them needed to find a way of expression. There needs to be a manifestation and that avenue must be created to show forth the light. Daniel and his friends didn’t miss out on that channel of expression. The people around noticed these guys carried what they don’t and the nation (righteousness) in them was established there through these men.

 

For all the years lived in Babylon, they never behaved like a Babylonian because of how much of what had been in them. This is the dream of the Lord for Nigeria. A nation where we have men who will stand for the truth everywhere they are found because a nation (way of life of righteousness) has been made out of them. This is the contribution of the church to the Nigeria we all desire. Can you see this is beyond what politics can drive?

The business of the Local Church is to build a nation identified by the common language of "righteousness". The church births a nation, the people decide their leaders as the country is not ran by the scriptures but by a constitution written by men of several belief system. The altar is not and should not be a place of political decisions; the altar is the place of nation building, where Christ's doctrine is enshrined in the heart of men.

 

Happy Independence, Nigeria.

Be Innovated

Olufemi Ibitoye