Politics for Jesus’ Followers

Last week we wrapped up our Sunday Seminar on “First Things First:  Distinguishing Biblical Majors and Minors in Relation to Current Issues.”  And the issue before us was Christian Faith and Politics (recordings of these sessions are on our website).  I put a major emphasis on the believer’s identity:  we’re only well posi­tioned to engage with politics when we’re grounded, rock-solid, in our self-understanding as God’s people.  First and fore­most, that’s who we are:  subjects of Christ the King.

In his article, “Bigger Fish to Fry:  Politics and the Priority of Disciplemaking,” David Mathis, puts things in perspective: “Jesus’s mission is bigger than” the next election.  “Way bigger.”  And if we really love our neighbors, we’ll care about their eternal good far more than about how they vote.

Pastor Jeremy Treat, from Reality LA, wrote an article, “Politics:  Important but not Ultimate.”  Don’t be “apolitical” (withdrawing from political engagement altogether, focusing only on personal or private spiritual matters) OR “all-political” (as if every problem were political and the solutions are stated by CNN or Fox News).

Trevin Wax recently wrote, “Pastors, Brace Yourselves for Another Election Year.”  We should avoid two opposite mistakes:  Going quiet (it’s tempting to steer clear of anything that might have the least whiff of politics), OR becoming a pundit who’s compelled to weigh in on every culture controversy.

John Piper challenges believers (in “Politics, Patriotism, and the Pulpit”):  “The tendency to confuse and combine Christian identity and its earthly expression, the church, with political identity, ethnic identity, national identity, or any other earthly identity—that conflating tendency is so strong, and I think so destructive to the radical call of the gospel, that it needs stead­fast resistance generation after generation.”  We may be US citizens, but we pledge our highest allegiance to Jesus, our Commander-in-Chief.