When I speak of salvation I do not speak merely in spiritual terms. We live in a messed up world that needs deliverance on every level. We are broken people with broken relationships, in messed up societies, under corrupt governments, working for and belonging to organizations that are often deeply corrupt as well. There is no shortage of deep problems within our institutions, whether they be families, churches, businesses, communities, or nations. We point the fingers for this unacceptable state of affairs in many directions (though we all bear some fault in it as well). Institutions are made of people, and if people are corrupt, then the institutions they belong to cannot be otherwise.
Seeing the state of the world, we long for easy top-down solutions. We like to think that if we change laws, or if we change governments, then we can be a more successful nation. We like to think that if we change jobs or change partners we will be happier. And certainly we are right to desire to get away from abusive relationships (and there is no shortage of those in this world), but it is not merely the absence of abuse or oppression that leads to deliverance in the spiritual, political, or emotional levels. Something is involved that is far deeper.
Whenever we reach a state such as we are in, before we point the fingers at others we must look at ourselves. How did we get here? What happened? What could I have done better? What were the other screwed up people in this situation reacting or responding to that made them do or say what they did? We do this not to wallow in self-pity or shame, nor to excuse other people completely by looking at the serious (and dangerous) outside circumstances, but we do this to understand the facts of the situation, without absolving anyone of their responsibility for this mess, including ourselves. All of us are at least partially responsible for the state of this world, even if that part is very small, once we are old enough to make a difference. We can make things better for ourselves and others, or we can make them worse. Our efforts are insufficient on their own, but they cannot help but play some role in the unacceptable current state of affairs. We can’t let ourselves off the hook just because we are unimportant in the grand scheme of events.
We must recognize our responsibility first before there can be improvement. There is no road to salvation without repentance as a first step. By recognizing our responsibility and showing proper remorse and regret for it, we take the first steps in moving away from what got us in the mess and toward a better future. If it is near-sighted and short-term thinking that has gotten us to the brink of disaster, it must be far-sighted and long-term actions that must get us out, and that requires that we avoid the shortcuts that got us to this unacceptable point.
I speak of both political and spiritual salvation because the same processes are involved in both. As human beings we have a personal relationship with God, and also personal philosophies and worldviews of all kind. But we are called to be a part of corporate bodies as well. We are commanded to fellowship with other brethren [1] as Christians, even though in these days many are tempted to consider themselves to be lone seekers in search of truth contrary to God’s will. Similarly, we enter this earth through families (as painful and abusive as many of those families are) [2] and we again have a responsibility to be a part of loving families (whether of chance or choice). We are also born as part of nations and peoples and tribes, whether we like it or not, and we suffer when our collective body is corrupt and oppressed, therefore the health of our people ought to be of the greatest interest to us, seeing as it influences our own fate.
Therefore, we cannot cut ourselves off from concern about the larger world we belong to simply because we do not like how it is. When those who are good (or profess to be good) avoid interaction in the outside world because of fears of contamination, we leave such activity to those who are only motivated by selfish ambition and corrupt mindsets. Good must resist evil, if not by the violence of this world; we cannot abdicate our responsibilities to our neighbors. To the extent that we do so, we are part of the problem of the corruption we see, and not part of the solution.
All around us there are institutions crumbling. Our sorry spiritual state as a culture and civilization are reflected in the decrepit state of civilization. The ship of state or the behavior of businesses is strongly influenced by the moral state of those who are captain of such vessels. We cannot compartmentalize our morality; to be godly is not only to have a high standard of personal morality but also a high standard of social morality. We are commanded to love God with all our heart and all of our mind and all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves; that requires action directed to our well being as well as the well being of others.
It is in large part because we have lost so much cohesion within ourselves and become so divided against ourselves that we face the problems we do within our political and economic systems. The invisible hand and self-regulating processes of the market require knowledge and accountability so that trust taxes and dividends take affect, so that those people and organizations that cut corners are properly punished, and those who behave properly are rewarded with trust and praise. All of that requires knowledge, as well as the building of communities where information can spread and where networks of friendships and partnerships can develop. This requires our own personal effort to keep up such networks and to help such institutions grow.
Salvation, whether it is the regeneration of our society or our own personal embryonic development into godly spiritual beings, requires a lot of time and effort. It is an organic process, one that cannot be rushed and that requires proper institutions like families and congregations and local communities for individuals to prosper as well as develop right relationships with God and with each other. We are all failing miserably at the vital job of building up and maintaining these relationships, and we all share some blame in having let things reach their present state. But if we want things to get better, we have to do something about it, rather than waiting on a deux et machina to do all the work for us to save us from ourselves. That’s not happening.
Do we have a vision of what sort of society we want to be a part of? Do we want loving relationships and friendships, families that show care for each other, communities of people who look out for each other and encourage those who are feeling down and help out those who are struggling to find their proper place? Do we want governments and authorities that are responsive to our needs and not looking out for their own selfish and crony interests? If we want these things, we have to build them for ourselves. We have let our existing institutions go to waste, or we have destroyed them through our selfishness and our wickedness. If we want them back, we are going to have to build them through the sweat of our own brows. There are no shortcuts, only a hard road to pave through the wilderness, and only desolate ruins to rebuild. If we want things to be otherwise, we will have to make it so. Do we have the will to do so?
[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/families-of-chance-families-of-choice/
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