The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety.
This last election cycle, and really every election cycle, kind of demonstrates that there are Christians who are probably not concerned enough about the political process. There are Christians that are kind of appropriately concerned and there are Christians that are overly invested, in the political process. I think one of the greatest guards is to remember that we are those who have a dual citizenship, and our citizenship is in heaven and Christ, and we are in the (Book of) Peter language "pilgrims, and sojourners, and travelers through this barren land, that is not our home. We are to render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and render to God the things that belong to God." I think we want to avoid not taking these things seriously on the one hand, but not avoid being over-invested on the other hand.
Honestly, Christians in the United States, we don't live in communism or socialism on the dictatorship, so we do have opportunity to vote. I believe there's some stewardship with that voting. I do believe we're voting and participating kind of in a broken system, so I encourage scripture Christians to realize they're not going to open the scripture and see a candidate space. And they're not going to open the scripture and see the platform of the Democratic, nor the Republican party.
You're going to have to do some thinking and some engagement, and there's some contextualization to how you engage in a broken, fallen political system. I don't mean broken, just in a sense of the United States is categorized by congressional gridlock and all that. I mean broken as in a sense of, our politics is composed of broken people; because all of humanity is fallen. I mean it in that broad sense. There's no perfect political system.
I would encourage Christians to approach it with the appropriate level of consideration. I'm not over-invested. I'm not under-invested. I realize that the mission of the church, and the mission of me as a Christ honoring husband and father, those kind of things don't change every four years or two years, on election cycle. The great commission is the same. And so, in one sense, the congregation of followers of Christ, they're doing the same things regardless of what's going around us with Caesar and other governmental influences.
Finally, I would just say, I just don't think there's anything in the political process that is worth losing the fellowship of the Body of Christ. In this last election cycle, 2016, I think hurt the unity of the Body of Christ of many Bible believing Christians in the United States, and I think we'll have consequences for our missiological effectiveness for a good while going forward. That has happened. We can't undo that, and so let's just press toward the mark of the high calling of God. We have to avoid being over-invested.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/J.S. Winborne
Originally published Friday, 17 January 2020.
