This year, Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence, marking six decades since its separation from Malaysia in 1965. Together with people from other faith traditions, Christians have played significant roles in building Singapore as a nation.
As we commemorate God’s faithfulness to the country we call home, it is fitting to pause and reflect on the meaning of citizenship and its accompanying responsibilities. What does it mean to be both a Christian and a citizen? How does our faith as Christians shape our understanding and practice of citizenship?
What does it mean to be both a Christian and a citizen? How does our faith as Christians shape our understanding and practice of citizenship?
The Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University defines a citizen as “a participatory member of a political community”. Expanding on this definition, the Center highlights some rights associated with citizenship:
The value of citizenship varies from nation to nation. In some countries, citizenship can mean a citizen has the right to vote, the right to hold government offices …1
Citizenship, therefore, entails both membership in and allegiance to a sovereign state. A citizen is not merely someone residing in a country but an active member of the community, with rights and responsibilities grounded in this membership.
For Christians, reflection on citizenship and its responsibilities should be grounded in Scripture. A good place to start is the Bible’s teachings about the State and civil authority, particularly Romans 13:1-7. The New Testament provides a profound theology of the State, presenting it as an institution ordained by God (Romans 13:1-2).
The State’s God-given role is to maintain order and uphold justice: to commend those who do good and to punish the wrongdoer (Romans 13:3-4).
For this reason, Christians are enjoined to “be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1).
Paul underscores that rebellion against the State equates to rebelling “against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves” (Romans 13:2 NIV). C. E. B. Cranfield clarifies: “Since civil authority is ordained by God, to fail to render it the appropriate subjection and, instead, to set oneself against it is to be guilty of rebelling against God’s ordering.” Cranfield adds that the judgement Paul refers to “is probably a divine judgement and not merely the civil authority’s reaction”.2
What is particularly noteworthy is that Paul was not referring to a democratic state but to an authoritarian one. Christians are called to recognise even such governments as ordained by God and instructed to submit to it.
This submission, to be sure, is never absolute. Christians are free from the obligation to submit to the government when its demands are in direct conflict with God’s Word, as Acts 5:29 makes clear.
This submission, to be sure, is never absolute. Christians are free from the obligation to submit to the government when its demands are in direct conflict with God’s Word, as Acts 5:29 makes clear.
Jesus’ command for his disciples to love their neighbour (Mark 12:30-31) also has wide-ranging implications for the Christian citizen, especially in his participation in civic life.
Christians are called to serve the common good of the society to which they belong. Thus, the Christian citizen must always serve his fellow citizens and contribute to the flourishing of the country or nation to which he has pledged his allegiance.
This means that the Christian citizen must participate as much as he can in the common life of the nation. This participation does not only include the formal duties of citizenship, such as voting and paying taxes. It also involves contributing to the welfare of his fellow citizens and promoting the wellbeing of the nation as a whole.
I have emphasised repeatedly in this publication and elsewhere that to be a good citizen, a Christian must first be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. To truly serve our country, we must first honour and serve God.
This principle applies to all Christians, whether they serve as teachers, lawyers, doctors or politicians in high office.
This means that there is a place for Christian patriotism—a love for our country that is governed by Christian values and the teachings of Scripture. However, Christian patriotism is critical patriotism: it does not naively support every aspect of the political, moral and civic life of the nation.
Above all, as citizens Christians must pray for the government and his nation. As Paul instructed in his letter to Timothy, his young protégé:
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2:1-2 NIV).
As pilgrims and sojourners on earth (1 Peter 2:11-12), Christians long for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). Yet, they are instructed to be fully invested in and pray for their temporal earthly home.
The great twentieth century theologian, Karl Barth, has captured these ultimate and penultimate concerns very well in The Christian Life:
Christians pray to God that he will cause his righteousness to appear and dwell on a new earth under a new heaven. Meanwhile they act in accordance with their prayer as people who are responsible for the rule of human righteousness, that is, for the preservation and renewal, the deepening and extending, of the divinely ordained human safeguards of human rights, human freedom, and human peace on earth.3
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College and Theological and Research Advisor at the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.
1 “What is Citizenship?” Center for the Study of Citizenship, Wayne State University, https://csc.wayne.edu/what-is-citizenship
2 C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans: A Shorter Commentary (Eerdmans, 1985), 322.
3 Karl Barth, The Christian Life (Eerdmans, 1981), 205.