And Now That You Have Voted…
And now that you have voted the real work of being the kind of person that God wants you to be in response to what He causes or allows begins. So whether your candidate won or not is irrelevant to being a Christian in this “one nation under God”. Instead what is relevant is your worldview. See, you carried your worldview into the voting booth and you carried it out. You will now carry it into your conversations and your e-mail “forwardings” and your personal celebrations or lamentations. This does not mean you do not reserve the right to disagree with the ideas of our new President-elect. No, you have the right and responsibility in our society to disagree if and when the biblical worldview is infringed upon. However you must do so in a way that doesn’t violate other vital components of that same worldview. It is important that we understand that the same worldview that abhors abortion and euthanasia and the mistreatment of the poor also abhors the dishonoring of government authorities. If we really hate the things that God hates and love the things that God loves then we will give place in our worldview to all that the Bible teaches.
It is no secret that this has been a great challenge to the church. Under Bill Clinton’s presidency it was not uncommon to find Christians sending around e-mails and sharing jokes that were crass and dishonoring. I am not sure how that fit with 1 Peter 2:13-17 which says,
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
I take that back, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fit. The tendency for all of us is to use our tongues or our typing fingers as tools to disparage and dishonor those we disagree with. As I already said we can voice disagreement and we should, but as we do we should keep our disparaging comments focused largely on ideas and not on people. Ideas are not people and people are not ideas, one we deal with vigorously and are not called to respect, the other we have a biblical mandate to honor and respect. If these are not held in proper perspective we can be passionately following God all the way into dishonoring Him.
We have the responsibility to submit and honor. Such is not our nature and God knows it better than we do. Yet Paul in the shadow of a much more oppressive Roman authority writes:
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
So now that you have voted be a Christian and keep your biblical worldview. Don’t hold a biblical worldview only when it is expedient. There is a place in the biblical worldview for ideological disagreement and even civil disobedience but never for personal dishonor.
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3 Responses to “And Now That You Have Voted…”
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Dear Church Family,
Bryan’s blog just brought me to tears. I have often felt like a less loveable person in the eyes of my fellow conservative brothers and sisters because of my political views. I’m deeply touched that Bryan has urged us to submit and honor our authority. And I’m not just saying that because my guy won! I would also like to address what the Bible says about our dealings with one another. I have truthfully been disappointed by some of the comments I have heard (or seen written) by some in our body. I would like to remind everyone that God calls us to treat each other gently and to do everything in our power to preserve unity for the sake of the gospel (Eph 4:2-6, Eph 4:29-32, Ro 15:5-7, Col 3:13-15, I Cor 8:9-13 just to name a few). Some of us may feel like weeping and some of us may feel like celebrating, but no matter how we feel we should ask ourselves before we open our mouths “will this edify the body”. I am not saying that we should live in fear of our opinions! Rather that God honors unity above our rights.
Peace and Love in Christ.
Thank you Bryan. I had to explain to my 6 year old son why we needed to pray for our president-elect. He at first did not want to do so. After explaining to him some of the very same things you stated he agreed to pray. His prayer was filled with love and concern and it brought tears to my eyes.
Thanks for your teaching Bryan. I can see I have grown under your shepherding. My attitude will be different toward this president than it was with Clinton.
To Anonymous…
Sometimes when we think we are in a group of like-minded people, we say things that might not be too tactful, but are really not meant to offend an individual. As Bryan has pointed out, we can disagree sharply with ideas, yet still respect the person’s right to their opinion. But, that is not an excuse for someone to be rude. And if that’s what you experienced, I certainly understand your feelings. However, unity is not achieved by people feigning agreement, or by individuals keeping themselves out of the conversation due to fear. Unity, at least the kind we seek as Christians, is unity in the Truth (not unity despite glaring differences).
Another side to this that you may consider; though there are many issues of disagreement to choose from, I would dare to say the one most of us in the Church fall back to is the abortion issue. Now this may or may not be an issue you disagree with others in the Church about. But as an example, if you did, this is an area in which unity is NOT possible without agreement to the truth. Murdering unborn babies is an atrocity – and if Christians get a little perturbed with a candidate on this issue (or supporters of that candidate – see Rom.1:32), I am certain you can understand why. Every strictly political issue is up for grabs when it comes to picking a side and retaining unity. However, moral outrages such as abortion are non-negotiable.