A reflection on our National Pledge, from
Garden to City
We, the citizens of
Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity
and progress for our nation.
Given that National Day is around the corner, perhaps on this Lord’s Day
it is proper that we take some time to reflect on our National Pledge and
consider the duties of a Citizen of our beloved Singapore in the light of the
Word of God. I would like to dwell on three ideas that are explicit in our
National Pledge, namely, (1) the Biblical call to support the flourishing of
the society as given by the cultural mandate, (2) the significance of dual
Citizenship for a Christian and (3) the primacy of Love in a community.
Let’s begin with the end of the National Pledge in mind, namely,
together as the citizens of Singapore we are to seek “happiness, prosperity,
and progress” for our nation. The pursuit of “happiness, prosperity and
progress” is akin to the well-known phrase of “Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness” from the United States of America’s declaration of
Independence. If one can sum up these two phrases as reflecting the flourishing
of societies, then it is certainly in accord with the Scriptures. You may
ask where do we see this and if so, what should we do as the citizens of the
nation? Let’s unpack this one at a time. We can see it in the original cultural
mandate given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth and subdue it. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them,
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). This original
cultural mandate, a term as coined by the theologian, still stands even though
Adam and Eve had rejected God’s loving rule of their life as recorded in
Genesis 3. What is different now, is that from Genesis 3:6 onward, life, contrary
to original design by God, has become very difficult and futile. This is true as
the alienation from God gives rise to the litany of alienations, starting with
social alienation between the genders (Gen 3:16), physical alienation with
nature (Gen 3:19) and the alienation of self (Gen 3:10). With the entrance of
sin, one can see that the cultural mandate given by God, as expressed in the
ordering of society and the care for creation, now includes new considerations arising
from sin.
Given that this mandate applies to
Christians, the first question that presents itself is what should we do as
citizens of Singapore? Of course, we should exercise the duties of our earthly
Citizenship of being a Singaporen as delineated in our national pledge, namely,
“to build a
democratic society based on justice and equality”. This is
indeed the right thing to do as a Singaporean Christian. Firstly, the idea of building a society aka
community, is explicit in the cultural mandate. Secondly, God is just and
equitable and we should be like him and therefore we continue to strive for a
society that is based on justice and equality. For there is no respect of
persons with God (Rom 2:11). Finally, as a Democratic society, we are a
self-governing free society which means that the members thereof have a say in
the ways we are to govern ourselves. How do we do that? This brings us to the
concept of Dual Citizenship. What does it mean to be a dual citizen, you may
ask? It means that, like Paul, we have an earthly citizenship (Acts 22:25,28), which
is a publicly recognized legal status as well as a heavenly one (Phil 3:20): “But
our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ” (ESV). Note that as a citizen of a democratic society, we differ
from being a subject in a kingdom since “a citizen participates in the
community to help maintain civic order”[1].
Furthermore, the calling of God (1 Cor 7:20) also applies to both our earthly
and heavenly citizenships. Specifically, for our earthly citizenship, this
means that we have a “stewardship of relationships and responsibilities”[2]
that calls for directing them to God’s glory in right relationships among both
individuals and institutions.
Let’s recap. First, we see that the
Bible supports the flourishing of Society as set forth in our National Pledge. Next,
we see that to support the flourishing of the Society, our earthly citizenship needs
to be invoked. Finally, this brings us to the critical idea of Community,
namely, “as
one united people” which embraces the key idea of relationships between
human beings in the society. It seems that the National Pledge defines the community’s
sole aim as one to pursue happiness,
prosperity, and progress which seems rather selfish in the way of everyone for himself.
However, if this is so, something in society will break. If on the other hand, we
see the pursuit of such for the good of others in the community or rather as an
expression for loving our neighbor, then things will surely work. Why so? This
is because, from all eternity, the Triune God who is love, consisting of God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, has always enjoyed a loving
relationship glorifying each other. We see this being articulated between the
Father and Son in Jn 17:5: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine
own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” We see
this extended to His people in Jn 17:22; “And the glory which thou gavest me
I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one”. Can we do
that? Sure, we can as we are his image bearer in Christ! This means that the
community of God here in FERC is defined by Love, that means centering on
others for their good or, in other words, pursuing their happiness as our
happiness.
Then by and by, we can be a force for expressing the true spirit of achieving
happiness, prosperity, and progress for our nation to the greatest
extent possible, thus foreshadowing the coming of the new heaven and the new
earth as a “holy city” (Rev 21:2) where all alienations will end, where “God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev
21:4). Amen.
[1] Living as Dual Citizens. Justin
Taylor, TableTalk, September 2018.
[2] The Christian Calling to Citizenship.
Jennifer Marshall, The Gospel Coalition, October 2012
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