10th December 2025 Question box

Tonight’s question is:

What authority does government have to determine spiritual order? Should our government be completely independent of the church, and how can we have a godly approach to politics?

So technically that’s three questions… but I’ll see what I can cover in two minutes:

Let’s think about the conversation that happened between Jesus and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate in John chapters 18-19. Here’s a few highlights from this conversation (and skipping over bits in the middle).

Pilate says: “Are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus: “My kingdom is not of this world”

Pilate: “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jesus: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

From this we see that when Jesus came to change the world, he didn’t come through the political power structures of his day. He set up a different kind of kingdom. And yet God has given the kingdoms of this world certain powers.

The Reformers spoke about two kingdoms:

• Jesus is the king and head of the church. Jesus is also the king of kings, (though he hasn’t yet asserted his authority over the kings of the earth).
• The church is an eternal, spiritual, kingdom. The kingdoms of this world are temporal, meaning that one day, Jesus will return to judge the kings of this world, and the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
• Jesus rules his church using the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. But God has given authority to the kings of this world to punish evil with the physical sword.
• The church speaks with a prophetic voice: to tell the government what God says is right and wrong. And the government has a right to punish the church in the case of criminal wrong doing.

So, in general, the church has authority in spiritual affairs, and the government has authority in temporal affairs. If you’re drinking and driving – that’s primarily a government issue. What you teach in a bible study – church issue. It’s healthy when both stay in their own lanes. In history, when the church has tried to exercise temporal power, it has corrupted the church. And when the government has tried to take spiritual power, it has lead to totalitarianism and persecution.

History seems to teach us that this separation of church & state can really only exist when the salt & light of the gospel is at work in the church and in society. We should recognise that there are some areas where it is genuinely tricky, because there’s overlap: And so child protection, workplace health and safety, COVID lockdowns, building regulations – these are all areas where the temporal authority of the government does affect how we do our ministry as a church. Its needs wisdom and humility and mutual respect between church and government if we are going to work through these things in the long term.

Just quickly, a godly approach to politics: We should respect the office of government, even when we don’t like the people or their policies. Be careful of tribalism at the expense of principles. Don’t just agree or disagree with things because of which side of politics say it; think about right and wrong, wise and foolish. We should be a prophetic voice, I can think of times when I have arranged a meeting with my local MP, and said: “Hey, I’m concerned about this injustice, and here’s what the bible says.”

Finally, “it is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.” (Ps 118:9). Sometimes Aussies want the government to be a Lord and Saviour who ushers in heaven on earth. But at the best, governments are harm minimisation. Our Lord Jesus is the one we should put our hopes in.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 3 August 2025. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.