Ten Encouragements Related to Politics

Dear CrossWay family,

This past Sunday, July 21, I gave ten brief encouragements about how to honor God with our engagement in politics. As promised, I’m including them below for our continued consideration.

Warmly,

Pastor Brett
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Before we get to the sermon, I want to take a few minutes to give a little guidance and encouragement to us about how to engage Christianly in politics. If you’ve been at CrossWay for any length of time at all, you know that our life together is centered on God, and his good news about Jesus, and the Bible, which bears witness to it—our center is not politics.

And yet, part of our following Jesus is loving our neighbors, and one of the ways we do that is by engaging in the civic life of our community and country. It’s not what God cares most about, but he does care that the way we engage is shaped by his Word and aimed at pleasing him. It seems like this stretch of the summer in which the major parties are having their conventions is a natural opportunity to give a little guidance about how to engage well. I was planning to do this last Sunday but then decided to wait a week in light of last weekend’s events.

I have ten quick encouragements.

1. Be vigilant about where you place your trust and hope. Psalm 146:3 says, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” There is a tendency in American politics to put our trust in princes. To look to one candidate or party as the solution to all our problems, to say in our hearts, if the election goes this way, we’re saved, and if it goes that way, we’re doomed. That is not where Christians put our trust or hope. Our trust and hope are in God, who will continue to reign in absolute power and goodness regardless of who is elected. It’s good to recognize that elections have consequences, but we don’t need in the least to be afraid. God will keep all of his promises to us no matter what happens in November.
   
   
2. Maintain a biblical proportionality about politics and the election. The election is important. But it is not most important. It is not more important than loving God. It is not more important than being godly. We are called to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). The kingdom of God does not come through elections. It comes through the people of God living in submission to their King and helping others enter his kingdom through trusting the gospel. Let’s make sure we keep first things first, even in an election year.
   
   
3. Be diligent to know and speak truth. All kinds of truth claims will be made this year. They will be made in debates, in reporting and opinion pieces, on the radio and on social media. Let’s make sure that we imitate our God, who cares about truth and always speaks truth. Let’s seek sources of truth that are demonstrably reliable, not just ones that agree with what we already think. And let’s make sure that what we say and what we write is true—not exaggerated, not misleadingly selective, not demonizing or dealing with straw men, but true.
   
   
4. Consider carefully how you will vote. Our vote is one of the key forms of influence we have over the direction of our country. And while I’m not going to tell you how to vote, nor can I touch on every factor to weigh, I want to name a few. Human government was established by God to do justice, to praise and promote what is good and to prevent and punish what is evil. So weigh which party’s platform better reflects God’s justice regarding the treatment of human beings, not least preborn human beings. Weigh which candidate, and I mean all the candidates, not just the two you first think of, best reflects God’s character, his goodness and trustworthiness. Weigh which policies are most conducive to religious freedom, so we can lead what Paul calls “a peaceful and quiet life” (1 Timothy 2:2). Be sure your conscience is well formed by God's Word, and do not violate it, even if that means for some offices you do not vote.
   
   
5. Prize and guard the unity of the church. I don’t need to say much about this, because Paul has said so much in Ephesians. We can disagree about politics, and we can seek to persuade about politics, but let’s not divide over secondary matters. Let’s be sure our relating to one another is marked by what the apostle James calls (James 3:17) “the wisdom from above,” which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits…”
   
   
6. Have right expectations for following Jesus in a fallen world. The New Testament tells us to expect opposition and persecution. It calls us exiles and sojourners. We can experience an unnecessary distress when we expect America to be what only the kingdom of God is. If we are a small minority, if we are misunderstood, if we are misrepresented and slandered, let’s respond as Christians, continuing to trust God and do good.
   
   
7. Remember your true adversary. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). Let’s be more concerned about the danger to our godliness and unity from the devil than we are about danger from political movements.
   
   
8. Be mindful of how your engagement is forming you. What effect is your engagement in politics having in your life? Do you find yourself becoming more patient, more hopeful, more involved with your neighbors? Or do you find yourself becoming more angry, more anxious, more isolated from people and immersed in the news? Is there some adjustment you need to make—maybe a break from the news—in order to guard your heart and your holiness?
   
   
9. Let your fears and disappointments become an opportunity to draw near to God. We all to varying degrees have the experience of looking at our country and recognizing that it falls short of what it could be if it reflected the values of God’s kingdom. And that could make us angry or fearful or despondent, or it could give us opportunity to turn to God and lament what needs to be lamented and ask for what needs to be asked for. Let’s continually turn to God. And finally:
   
   
10. Pray. Pray that God will guard your heart from wrong hopes and desires. Pray that God will guard our church from division. Pray for the good of our country and its leaders. Pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Pray, and then trust our prayer-hearing, sovereign-over-all, utterly trustworthy God.