Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you. (Hebrews 13:3)

As the East Asian Spring Festival has commenced, we remember in prayer Wáng Yí, 王怡, a legal scholar and founding pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church. He continues in prison (arrested in 2018) for his advocating for church-state separation and for his challenging China’s state church.
Yí’s “Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” is wisdom for American Christians who want to stay faithful to Jesus, love our country and our neighbors, but without being seduced by religious nationalism, that makes a religious idol out of the secular authority.
Wáng Yí, in a time-honored tradition of Chinese intellectuals, speaks as the “conscience of his nation.”

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)

After Constantine’s conversion (AD 312) the Roman Empire recognized the Christian church. Official persecution of Christians ended. Orthodoxy was affirmed and summarized in the Nicene Creed (AD 325). But the new imperial favor meant Christianity was politically and socially popular. Corruption grew in both high society and church-state relations.

Enter John Chrysostom (AD 347-407). Born in a well-educated family in Antioch, he became known as the “Golden-Mouth.” John's sermons and writings were Bible-based, clear, practical, and attracted large crowds.

After he became bishop of Constantinople, he was a public witness against social immorality, callous treatment of the urban poor, and the extravagant spending in the imperial capital. So John made enemies in both the church and state, including the Emperor’s wife. He was charged with treason and deported from Constantinople. Chrysostom died in exile.

There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), so it’s “back to the future.” If the state and the church do not stay free and independent, corruption grows. The church may curry the state’s favor to promote or protect its work. Or the state may seek to control the church and to regulate its prophetic witness.

Last week, a U.S. Representative from my home state said that the Washington Cathedral’s bishop should be deported. Others in Congress have called for the POTUS and the government to seize or shut down the Cathedral. Lost in the political drama and theatrics — historical ignorance and irony.

Should churches be regulated, or sermons state-controlled, if not ideologically aligned? American patriots fought for religious liberty against a state-controlled church. Nazis required the state German church to comply with party ideology. The People's Republic of China regulates religion, pursues “sinicization,” disbands house churches, and registers only state-controlled churches.

So, where are today’s Chrysostom’s? Bonhoeffer’s? Or Wáng Yí’s? All who love their countries but whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). The need in an imperial state: a public witness to Jesus Christ with more ”golden mouths” — and fewer religious sycophants and court jesters.

For now almost five decades, Robert M. M’Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar has guided my devotions. Today’s chapters were timely.

• Genesis 6: Remember that the earth is filled with corruption and violence because of willful wickedness residing in human hearts. Not only we, but God our Creator is grieved.

• Ezra 6: Remember that rebuilding the temple prospered by God’s Word proclaimed by God’s prophets. God’s decrees overrule the permissive decrees of human rulers. God’s Word fulfills God's Purposes — through human agency.

• Acts 6: Remember that all other good works can be delegated. To grow God’s people, priority must be given to Prayer and the ministry of the Word.

• Matthew 6: Remember to not be anxious about the future. Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.