Pauline Freedom and Christian Support for Israel

From a Pauline, right-dividing perspective, Christians today are not under any law code that commands support for any particular modern nation, including Israel. Our ethical obligations are drawn from Paul’s instructions to the body of Christ, within the dispensation of the grace of God.

Within Paul’s writings there is no explicit command that members of the body of Christ must support Israel or any other nation-state. At the time Paul wrote, the political entity in the land was the Roman province of Judea, not the modern State of Israel established in 1948, and there is no Pauline precept that believers must support that provincial government. Likewise, there is no biblical command to support the United States, England, or any other civil power.

Romans 13 teaches that there is a God-ordained role for government and that believers should recognize the legitimacy of civil authority in its proper sphere. Yet that passage does not bind us to support every policy or every nation; it simply acknowledges that government in general is a divine institution with a limited, defined purpose (primarily the restraint of evil and the maintenance of order), not universal social engineering.

Although there is no command to support Israel, there is a distinctly Pauline posture toward the Jewish people. In Romans 9:1-4 Paul writes:

"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites;"

Paul’s attitude is one of deep love and sacrificial concern for Israel. He affirms that Israel has been temporarily set aside, is presently in a state of blindness and diminishment, and yet still has a future role in God’s plan. To be actively hostile to the Jewish people is contrary to the spirit of Paul’s teaching and contrary to basic Christian charity.

Recognizing this, it would be un-Pauline in tone and unchristian in character to harbor hatred or animosity toward the Jewish people. A believer who understands the future prophetic role of Israel will naturally feel a measure of goodwill and concern for them, even while acknowledging that the present secular state is not the fulfillment of the promised kingdom.

Support for the modern State of Israel therefore falls into the realm of Christian liberty and wisdom, not commandment. Under Paul, believers are free in Christ to evaluate how their political and international alignments reflect the character of God and a sound worldview. God’s character includes faithfulness to promises made to Israel, both in covenants such as the Abrahamic covenant and in prophetic assurances of future restoration. Because God has not abandoned his purposes for Israel, a Christian may find it God-honoring to support the Jewish people and, within prudent limits, to favor the security and stability of the modern state that shelters them.

At the same time, Scripture gives no requirement that one must endorse every policy of Israel’s government, nor does it bind the conscience to a particular foreign-policy stance. The appropriate application of Pauline teaching is that believers are free to support or not support Israel’s government based on informed judgment, conscience, and perceived alignment with justice and order, while never embracing anti-Jewish hostility.

In sum, we are not under a law that commands support for Israel, but we are guided by Pauline love for the Jewish people, an awareness of God’s future purposes for them, and the freedom to act in ways we consider consistent with God’s character and with sound, practical wisdom.

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