On Politics: Ambassadors in a Tent, or Artificers in a Kingdom
How our dwelling reflects our calling.
G’mornin’!
This newsletter is the third and final installment of “On Politics,” as it relates to the Body of Christ today. Before reading on, consider reading the first installment, “On Politics: ‘Be Subject to the Superior Authorities’,” as well as the second installment, “On Politics: Dead Men Don’t Vote.”
While Scripture is not, by any means, a political handbook, Paul, the apostle to the nations, was explicit about what our attitude should be toward politics and government, no matter our personal feelings about who is in office, who is not in office, or the consequences that arise by virtue of who is in office.
Establishing Our Ambassadorship
Throughout this study on politics, we have focused, primarily, on what members of the Body of Christ ought not to do, during this “present wicked eon” (Galatians 1:4).
The Body of Christ is not called to represent a political party, or a certain religious institution. We are not sent to meddle in the world’s affairs.
Rather, Paul teaches that we are to be ambassadors for Christ.
But before we can effectively take hold of our duties here on Earth, we must first establish what an ambassador is, and what an ambassador does.
In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul writes:
20 For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, “Be conciliated to God!”
According to the Greek-English Keyword Concordance of the Concordant Literal New Testament, “ambassador” is translated from the Greek word, πρεσβεύω (presbeuō).
Presbeuō derives from presbys, meaning “elder,” denoting someone who acts with dignity, or authority.
Ambassador: A diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment. -Merriam-Webster
Therefore, Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, is revealing that we, members of the Body of Christ, are not merely representing Christ on Earth, but we are conducting official business, on behalf of a conciliating God!
An important element to remember, here, is that an ambassador is never sent to their own country. They are always sent to another country, on behalf of their own.
Consider the following passage:
Our relation to the governments of the earth is clearly defined by one word. We are ambassadors. Sent from the court of heaven, we represent the divine government on the earth so long as the peace which the conciliation brings may last.
Before God declares war with the earth, we, as His ambassadors, will be withdrawn.1 In the meanwhile it should be our settled policy to conciliate. The ambassador’s business has to do only with peace.
His work ends when war is declared. So we should use every effort to be at peace with the governments with which we come in contact, relying on God to restrain them from forcing us to do that which is displeasing to Him.
He will see to it that a frank, free confession of our faith will receive consideration at the hands of the powers that be, which, as we have said, are His ministers, working out His purpose, even though they may not be aware of it.
We stand for peace, not merely with other nations, but also with the government under which we live. -Unsearchable Riches, vol. 10, p. 4
Therefore, we are ambassadors to Earth, heralding the glorious news from our celestial homeland. Namely, that God is conciliated to the world!
We are not of this world. It’s imperative to keep this in mind.
We are visitors. We are campers.
Paul the Tentmaker: Campers Sent on Behalf of the Celestials
Speaking of campers, Paul’s trade, as a tentmaker, has a beautiful semblance to the evangel revealed to him by Christ.
We learn about his training as a tentmaker, in Acts 18:1-3, where we read:
1 After these things, departing from Athens, he came to Corinth.
2 And, finding a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy, and Priscilla, his wife (because Claudius prescribed that all the Jews depart from Rome), he came to them,
3 and, because of his being of a like trade, he remained with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
Tarsus, Paul's hometown, was famous for producing cilicium, which was a heavy fabric used to make tents and cloaks.
His work was humble, and anchored to the idea of temporariness. A tent is never pitched to last forever. It is pitched for a while, until it is time to move on.
Given that Paul was called to be an ambassador of a divine message, never before revealed to anyone in Scripture, his trade as a tentmaker becomes emblematic of this divine calling.
Tents represent transience, not permanence.
Paul’s ministry was one of “conducting an embassy,” not in marble palaces or Roman courts, but in a tent, and sometimes, “in a chain” (Ephesians 6:20).
Although the apostle’s message was regal, or royal, his setting was makeshift, or nomadic. His feet kicked up the dust of Earth, but his message was from the celestials.
Tents are pitched by those who do not plan to stay long. And that is precisely the plight of the Body of Christ today. We are not staying long. We are passing through.
We’re in a foreign land.
In Philippians 3:20, Paul writes:
20 For our realm is inherent in the heavens, out of which we are awaiting a Saviour also, the Lord, Jesus Christ…
That is to say, our home is not on Earth. We are waiting to be called back home, back to our true home.
Paul, in his capacity as a tentmaker, was a walking metaphor, an emblem of the evangel he was entrusted to share, and teach.
The apostle to the nations taught an evangel completely governed by the absolute despotism of grace, revealed apart from covenant, apart from Israel, and rooted in our celestial allotment.
We are sojourners, residing in stitched tents, weathering the high winds, awaiting our full realization, “groaning in ourselves, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is out of heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2).
Paul doesn’t tell us to build bigger, sturdier tents. Why would he?
Our ambassadorship is not a calling to settle or stake claims on Earth, but to wait in hope, heralding the embassy of peace with every step.
We are counting on our Savior, “Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory, in accord with the operation which enables Him even to subject all to Himself” (Philippians 3:21).
Jesus the Artificer: Foreshadowing the Earthly Kingdom
Jesus, during His earthly ministry, shared an evangel that was much different than Paul’s evangel to the nations.
And, again, as with Paul, we see this through Jesus’ occupational training as an artificer.
In Mark 6:3, we read:
3 Is not this the artisan, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?
In Greek, “artificer” is translated τέκτων (tektōn), meaning, literally, “artificer,” or one skilled in building.
Jesus’ earthly ministry was focused on laying the foundation for the coming Millennial Kingdom, which is to be an enduring, visible reign of God on Earth.
When that time comes, Israel will be restored to prominence, and the nations will be blessed through her.
As an artificer, Jesus was trained to build, with His hands, stable, lasting, immovable structures, reflecting his evangel of the coming kingdom.
He came to prepare the groundwork for God’s literal dwelling among men, the Kingdom of Heaven, as foretold by the prophets.
Jesus did not share a “secret evangel,” as Paul did. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about this coming kingdom. It was no secret.
In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says:
I was not commissioned except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus came to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom, calling for national repentance, and offering a real, earthly reign.
He did not proclaim, as Paul did, a celestial destiny for a joint body of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-16; 3:6).
This was not the evangel of the Uncircumcision, but the evangel of the kingdom, which was intimately tied to land, law, lineage, and the restoration of the nation of Israel.
In Acts 3:21, Peter declares:
Whom heaven must indeed receive till the times of restoration of all which God speaks through the mouth of His holy prophets…
And in Matthew 19:28, Jesus promises His apostles:
You also shall be seated on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
These are the blueprints of a literal administration on Earth. Thrones, cities, vineyards, and temples, all of these are images fit for a material theocracy.
Jesus did not come to dismantle the world, but to renew it. He was not building tents in a wilderness, but laying the cornerstone of a kingdom that would, one day, descend from heaven to dwell on Earth.
As an artificer, He prefigured this role. His hands shaped wood and stone, just as His teachings shaped the moral and spiritual foundation of a new era for Israel.
His was a ministry of constructing and establishing, not of passing through. He came not to reveal a mystery, but to fulfill prophecy.
Sojourners in Tents, Ambassadors of Peace
Paul and Jesus were both skilled laborers. Yet, even their earthly trades, tentmaker and artificer, serve as profound illustrations of the evangels they heralded.
Jesus, the Artificer, came to lay the foundation for a visible, lasting kingdom for Israel. And that nation will, once more, be restored, during the Millennial Kingdom.
His ministry was rooted in prophecy, covenant, and fulfillment.
His hands shaped wood and stone, but His words laid the foundation for the Theocracy to come, when the King of Israel will reign from Jerusalem, and righteousness will cover the Earth as the waters cover the sea.
Paul, by contrast, was a tentmaker.
His work was humble, temporary, and mobile, reflecting the evangel that was entrusted to him.
Paul did not proclaim the restoration of the house of Israel, but the revelation of a secret, the administration of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:2), in which a new humanity is being created, composed of Jews and Gentiles, reconciled to God, in one body.
Whereas Jesus spoke of thrones and vineyards and cities on Earth, Paul speaks of celestial realms, of blessings among the celestials in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Paul was not laying brick, but stitching fabric, calling together a people whose citizenship is not in Jerusalem, but in the vast empyrean.
And so, we, the Body of Christ, follow in Paul’s footsteps.
We are not kingdom builders, nor are we temple restorers.
We are not seeking to transform the Earth, but to proclaim a message from above. We are ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), those who represent a far-off land, proclaiming peace in the midst of estrangement.
Our realm is celestial. Our tent is temporary. Our ambassadorship is only for a time. Meanwhile, we have an expectation, which will see the husk of our broken, fleshly body made anew.
For we are awaiting the Savior, “Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21).
And until that day, we groan, not for repair, but for resurrection, and transfiguration.
We are not called to settle here. We are called to represent there.
So, let us not despair of our tents. They are symbols, not shortcomings.
We carry a divine message in earthen vessels, knowing that what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is that which is without end (2 Corinthians 4:18).
We are ambassadors in tents.
Before you go…
My hope is that this final installment of the “On Politics” series was fruitful, edifying, and served as a gentle reminder of what our real expectation is. And, perhaps, it made you think about ambassadorship in a way that you hadn’t considered before.
The blustery winds of politics and religion, today, are enough to make one cynical, pessimistic, and even hopeless, but we are entreated to race the good race, knowing, full well, that we are in good hands.
Till next week!
With Grace,
Concordant Student
Given the nature of ambassadorship, the snatching away, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4, is a wondrous parallel to the legal reality of an ambassador during times of war.
Excellent article, brother.