My family loves Nebraska football. We look forward to football season coming around so we can see our Cornhuskers play!
It seems like it used to be that way with politics too. You’d have local races and even state level races, but the big league of politics was the Presidential race and that season only came around every four years.
But now it isn’t every four years. It is nonstop. We never let down from the last “season” after the 2016 elections. It was as though that was simply one quarter in a game that has limitless quarters. As soon as that quarter was over, it was on to the next.
Now we find ourselves racing full bore into the 2020 election, and there are some developments that could seriously affect that election and supercharge the atmosphere with emotion.
Like impeachment.
What are we to do? And by “we” I mean Christians.
Anyone who has read this blog for more than a few posts knows I have a particular political stance. I am a patriot. But my country is not America, so my patriotism cannot be about America. My country is the Kingdom of God. My patriotism is about our King.
We recently moved to Texas from southern California. I have noticed some cultural differences (yes, that was understated to the point of irony). But some things are much the same.
There are many more people who identify as “Christian”. In some ways, they remind me of the people who identify themselves as “Trans”. They call themselves men or women when their DNA says the opposite.
I am on the record through these posts and decades of teaching as saying if your DNA is male, you are male. Whether you “feel” male isn’t the issue. Whether you “identify” as male is irrelevant. Whether you want to be male simply doesn’t matter.
If your DNA says you are male, you are male.
In the same way, if your “DNA” is of this world (you have not been born again as Jesus said was necessary so there has not been a change in your spiritual DNA), you are of this world. Saying you are Christian doesn’t make you one any more than saying you are female makes you female if you are a man.
I have found our DNA shows at election time.
So what should we who are Christian do? we need to start with ourselves (as opposed to trying to change someone else) and ask some questions:
- Who are we?
- What is our job?
- What is the best way for us to do that job?
I suggest some simple answers to these questions.
- Who are we? We are Christians, citizens of the Kingdom of God and subjects of our King, Jesus.
- What is our job? Christians are ambassadors in a foreign country (2 Corinthians 5:20). Our primary responsibility is to our King, to carry out His instructions as we represent Him in this foreign land. His instructions are simple: plead with those who are not reconciled to Him to be reconciled before it is too late.
- What is the best way for us to do that job? By taking any action possible to earn the right to be heard by those who are not reconciled to Him, and then presenting the good news that they can be reconciled to Him.
Taking any actions in this world which dishonor Christ or compromise our mission is rebellion against God. This could be called “treason” in worldly terms.
Does this look familiar? A Christian makes politics her first concern. She so identifies with a political group (Republican, Democrat, Independent…) or even a cultural group (conservative or liberal) that she has lost credibility with people in the other groups. They don’t listen to her if she ever does represent Jesus because they can only see a person committed to that worldly stance that is so different from their own. Too often she has even belittled and alienated those who disagree with her to the point that she has no credibility at all.
I have seen this with Christians who call themselves “conservative” as though it is a badge of faithfulness to the Lord, and with Christians who own the label “liberal”, certain that this is what true Christians believe.
These Christians have traded their faithfulness to Jesus for an alliance with a worldly system that will be destroyed and lost for eternity.
Christians who happen to be American need to be concerned about treason. Not someone else’s. Not treason against America. But treason against the Kingdom of God. Treason against our King. Because when we knowingly and intentionally turn our backs on His commission to us, and instead join with a cause that compromises that mission, we have committed treason.
As election season heats up, each of us needs to think about this. Are we “Christian”, or are we “American”?
Jesus said we can’t serve two masters, and if people who know you, people with whom you talk, hear about politics and cultural preferences but not being reconciled to Jesus, we have chosen to serve a master who isn’t Jesus.
We must be careful. The only way to be sure we are navigating these waters correctly is to avoid worldly entanglements, and keep our eyes on Him.
As election season heats up, more than ever we need to Know Jesus and Be Faithful.
