In Ecclesiastes 1:9, Solomon reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun,
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
All these debates and questions about the role of the church and politics is nothing new. When Jesus came, many thought he’d bring political revolution and overturn kingdoms to bring full freedom for the Israel on earth. We can look through history and see that this persistence of Christians wanting an earthly Kingdom is nothing new, from the Israelites wanting a King to expecting Jesus to be an earthly King, to creating state sanctioned Christianity, to now thinking that our political structures can transform our country.
Now let’s look at our current state of affairs. In America we have our two political parties, and they spend a lot of time debating and yelling at each other. Pastors try to bring peace by preaching against the perils of progressivism and the social gospel or by speaking against Christian nationalism. They try to keep peace by saying Christians can be in either political party, but if we’re being honest – they can’t belong to either. We can spend sermons talking about both extremes of political ideology and try to bring people back to the middle, but at the end of the day politics divide and Christianity unites.
Christians are able to be united because they are focused upwards towards God, when our focus is on politics we are only focused on horizontal solutions and thinking that something besides Jesus can save us. Our political allegiances are weak alliances that we can never fully be united with because they are not built around this commonality: repenting, following, obeying, and worshiping a Creator with wisdom, justice, righteousness, and mercy beyond our understanding.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Ephesians 2:14-16
We’ll never have full unity with either political party because they are incapable of behaving or making laws that create a world of justice and righteousness like God intended. As we read in Ephesians, it is Jesus that breaks down walls in hostility and in Ephesians 4:11-13, Paul reminds us that it is the Church that helps believers become mature through the knowledge of Christ and thus experience the fullness God intended. It is through the power of the united church, not political parties and systems that change will be made.
Here’s what I believe: it’s really easy for us to repeat history and think we can build a perfect Kingdom without the King. We need to be reminded that Jesus wasn’t a political activist and revolutionary and that apostles didn’t go out to preach that we should make new laws. We have a King who came into this world and never wore a physical crown. Yet this seemingly powerless King showed authority over they physical and spiritual world and defeated all the supernatural powers and authorities upon his death on the cross.
This is the Kingdom we’ve been invited into.
Jesus conquering the world wasn’t done according to human wisdom and our efforts to bring justice and righteous to our current culture shouldn’t be either. If we want to participate in improving our society before we get to our eternal perfect home, then we need to stop working in our power and instead operate in Christ’s. It is the Gospel message that transforms the world. It is the gospel that reconciles us back to God, make us a new creation, bring us into unity with fellow believers, and transforms the world. Our solution should look different than our worlds, our solution must be the proclamation of the Gospel and making disciples.
10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:10-11
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Mark 16:15
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross
Colossians 2:15
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:16-19
Let’s ask ourselves, do we believe that God is big enough to transform lives and start to impact culture from the inside out? Hang with me and let’s visualize how Christians can change a nation, no political activation needed.
Pornography, prostitution, and trafficking… these are some huge areas that would be impacted if existing Christians stopped participating and the need for selling humans could be drastically reduced if more people followed Christ and were discipled into valuing life, upholding holy sexuality, and treating others as image bearers of Christ. Check out Acts 19 to see examples like this play out, Christians can make a difference by impacting local idols and economics. We have choices on where to give our money and time, “for where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” Matthew 6:21
We could reduce abortions by people viewing sex as holy and intended for marriage and an understanding of God’s word on the sanctity of life and his anger towards child sacrifice and murder. Then think about reducing the numbers in foster care by parents leading their families like we see in Titus 2 or Ephesians 5:21-33, families would remain in tack and children would be raised with Godly understanding and the supports needed to flourish as the age. More families would participate in adoption for children who were missing a God honoring families and provide the stability and hope children in the foster care system need.
I see a world where Christians understand their role as stewards of creation, where they value their work and praise God in all that they do, where people put their spiritual gifts to work to build up the Church and use their skills to help others and create flourishing for all of creation.
I see a world where people say hi to their neighbor; where Christians are counseling and providing comfort to the people around them, where we share each other’s burdens, where people are shown their value in God, where we know when our neighbors need financial help and we give it, and we look outside of ourselves to see how we can help those in need.
I see a world where people give their lives to God and turn from their addictions and people are healed from sickness. Where we are so focused upward that we turn from our fleshly desires and don’t want to go back. Indeed, I’ve seen all these things happen and want to continue to see God’s power defeat darkness over and over again.
We may not see perfect wholeness until Jesus’s second coming and we enter into our final home, but that doesn’t mean the God’s word isn’t active and able to make change now. We simply need to remember who our allegiance is to, it’s not to a political party savior but to our true Savior, Jesus Christ. The political atmosphere will always be changing and sometimes our party will be on top and sometimes it won’t, but regardless of who’s in power in our earthly home, we know our King is on His throne – it is to Him whom we owe our eternal allegiance to.
Here’s 3 practical thoughts about engagement in politics to end on:
Christians over Political Party
We need to stop thinking of people as conservative or liberal but instead of saved by and following Christ or not. It doesn’t matter what someone’s political party is if they don’t know Jesus. We should be more saddened by people not knowing Christ than them being on the other side of the party line, for we know and believe in the final judgement.
How to be Politically Informed
God is over all things and our identity in Him supersedes all things. Therefore, we can’t separate out our Christian world view of politics. We do live in a democratic society and we’re free to vote or support policies. However, we must be dedicated to reading and believing the Word of God and interpreting all laws, policies, organizations, theories, and practices through the lens of Scripture. We balance this all out by recognizing that even if we make wise laws, they won’t transform society or save lives like the Gospel will.
Eternity in Mind
People are eternal beings; we can’t be so focused on creating a good society now that we forget what God called us to do. God didn’t originally intend for us to have a human King and His redemption of the world didn’t include overthrowing them, but Jesus did give us the Sprit and command to go forth to preach the good news, baptize believers, and create disciples.