"No Other Gods"

Let us frame our discussion of Biblical faith and political responsibility around the first of the Ten Commandments, since, while it seems to be simply "religious," it is actually one of the most "political" statements in the whole Bible.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me ( Ex. 20: 2, 3, italics added).

What does this mean? It means that there is but one God, the living God of Hebrew history. Absolute allegiance must be given to him, and to no one else. Only to the living God can final and unqualified allegiance be given. What does this have to do with politics?

Everything.

It means that we can never give our final allegiance to any political system, any economic system, any set of political or social ideals, any nation or group of nations. Our final allegiance belongs to God alone. If we give it to someone else, or something else, that person or thing takes the place of God in our lives. And from the standpoint of Biblical faith, this is idolatry: the worship of an idol or a false god. "My native land" is not God, therefore I may not give final allegiance to my native land. The attitude "My country, right or wrong" is an un-Biblical attitude, whether the country is Russia or Germany or India or . . . America. The Socialist (or Republican or Democratic or Prohibition) party is not God, therefore I may not be a completely uncritical party member. "My party, right or wrong," is also un-Biblical. The temptation is always to make some man-made object (a country, a political system) into an object of final allegiance. This is idolatry whether in the seventh century B.C. or in the twentieth century A.D. The Christian may worship only the living God.

Now this sounds like dangerous talk! Give allegiance to something higher than the United States? Subversive! Realize that America may be less than a fully "Christian nation"? Seditious! And yet Biblical faith leaves us with no other alternative. Everything, absolutely everything save God himself, stands under judgment, and is something less than God.

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