In the United States, we are in the middle of what best can be described as “silly season.”  This is a presidential election year, and so politics is the overwhelming topic of public discourse right now. Everybody has an opinion. The opinions range from strong support of a side to “I wish we could just get this over with.”

I recently made a social media comment that garnered a fair amount of discussion. “I wish people were as passionate about Jesus as they were about politics and college football.” 

Surprisingly, the politics portion of the comment raised more of a ruckus than the football part.  If you are from the south, you know how passionate Southerners are about their football.  Most of the comments agreed with my post.  I think more and more people have grown weary of the hypocrisy that permeates politics.  The good guys no longer where white hats.  Seems they all wear hats with varying shades of gray these days.

So I want to expand my thoughts on what I believe to be a healthy Christian engagement of politics.

What I Am NOT Saying about Politics

I am not saying Christians should not be interested in politics.  Nor that they should not be mindful about how they vote.  God spoke to the exiles in Babylon through Jeremiah:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. – Jeremiah 29:7

We should use or vote to seek to bring about goodness, righteousness, and justice.  Our privilege to vote gives us an opportunity to play a role in seeking the welfare of a society filled with people created in the image of God.  THAT is important. Jesus told us to be both the salt of the earth and light of the world. (Matthew 5:13-16) Both of those images suggest we permeate the culture around us and influence it for good.  The goal of our influence, however, is to be the glory of God.  Not pleasing circumstances to our preferences.

Christians should exercise their right to vote.  I plan to as well.  Some will “vote” by abstaining to vote because they cannot in their good conscience support either candidate.  Still others have reasons for supporting either of the candidates, and most can support their choice with biblical principle.  But Christians can and should follow what they sense to be the leadership of the Holy Spirit and vote (or not) accordingly.

Voting is an important privilege we have.  We should exercise it thankfully, because many around the world do not have that opportunity.

What I AM Saying

The Sovereignty of God

First, I am concerned that we forget the active sovereignty of God in the daily affairs of this world.  Even in the United State of America.  From the foundation of the world, God has had a plan to create, redeemed, and restore this world.  We sometimes lose sight of the fact that we are but a blip on the radar screen of God’s plan.  Both where we are and when we are.  The outcome of the 2024 United States of America presidential election will not altar God’s plan at all.  In fact, it will be part of God’s plan.

The Seriousness of Sin

Second, I fear that we have misdiagnosed the reasons for our culture’s problems.  If a doctor treats a patient based on a misdiagnoses, two things happen.  The actual sickness goes untreated and spreads while a new problem may be created by the treatment for the misdiagnosis.  

The real problem in our culture is SIN.  And the only answer for sin is Jesus.  I love this quote from one of my favorite preachers:

“We are not seeing terrible things in our culture because we vote the wrong way, we are seeing terrible things in our culture because men love darkness rather than light.” – Voddie Baucham

Most of the time with political issues, we address the fruit of the problem and neglect its root.  If the root is not eradicated, the fruit will reemerge after some time.  Just like weeds in a garden.  You have to dig up the roots.

Our culture needs deliverance from its sin problem, and that is found in Jesus and His work on the cross.  Passing laws to force people to “do better” will only modify behavior for a season.  We are all lawbreakers at heart.  That is what sin is, breaching God’s standard of holiness.  Why do we expect a lawbreaking heart to exhibit law-conforming behavior?

If the answer to the problem had been politics, perhaps Jesus’ encounter with Pontius Pilate would have gone differently.  (John 18:28-40).  Had politics been the answer, Jesus would not have said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  He would have immediately wiped out the Roman government and established His rule in Jerusalem.  But the cross was necessary then and it is necessary now. The need was and is atonement for sin.  Not a military or political transfer of power.

The Promise of Eternity

Our current over-obsession with politics also neglects the truth that this world is not our ultimate destination.  Peter reminds us repeated in his two letters in the New Testament that we are pilgrims, strangers, and sojourners.  We are passing through this life in the way to eternity.  This eternity Jesus provides for us is far greater than anything we can experience in this sin-infested, broken world.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. – 2 Corinthians 5:1

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.  – Hebrews 11:9-10

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. – Hebrews 13:14

I think we sometimes get overly attached to this world. God has indeed blessed us to live where and when we do.  And we shouldn’t take it for granted.  Civic affairs should matter to us.  We need to vote and to let our voice be heard.  Moreover, we should stand for and proclaim Biblical values like righteousness, justice, and goodness.

I am not saying we shouldn’t care about politics or that we shouldn’t vote.  Please don’t misrepresent me by thinking I don’t view this as important.  What I do want everyone to understand is that the real problem is sin.  A politician cannot eradicate sin. Only a Savior can.  Let’s be passionate about addressing the REAL CURE.