For the last several years I have watched our country disintegrate over the now past Presidential election. During this time I have thought long and hard about how important this should be for those of us who are truly in Christ. How much of ourselves should we be putting into these political processes? This morning on while sitting in traffic, I think it came to me. I now believe I have the answer.
As Christians we first have to figure out what is important. I say we must figure it out, because it is already there for us to read in Scripture. Many would try to "interpret" and make a "decision" about this, but likely they will fall on the wrong side of the issue. I want to point out two passages in Scripture and give an idea what I think we should be doing.
1) In Matthew 22, Christ Jesus tells us "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's". What this means is that we are to exercise our civic duties until it interferes with our duty to God. Yesterday, we all were able to exercise our civic duty and vote for our next human leader. This is scriptural that we do this. It is our duty to participate in as much as we can up to the point that it interferes. Here is where we reach the problem.
2) In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul tells us that we are to "preach Christ crucified." When you take this in context with Matthew 28, the Great Commission, you see we are to go and make disciples by preaching Christ alone.
Today as I came to work and sat in the endless traffic of the Claiborne fly-over ramp, I realized that we have failed God by immersing ourselves in electioneering and politicking. I recall recently a conversation with someone who told me that they never had opportunites to talk about their faith at work. This morning I meditated on that thought and realized that this same person would likely never have a problem to talk politics to the same folks all day about politics. How can we square this with a clear mandate from Christ to give to God what is His, and to preach Christ? The answer: we can't.
The reason that we are having problems in our world today is because of sin. The only cure for sin is Christ. If we stop spending all of our time preaching politics and start preaching Christ crucified, then we will be injecting the cure for sin into the world, and the only thing this can do is help make it better. It will Glorify God, offer opportunities to us to see Him work, and grow His kingdom here until that day when Christ comes for us.
Today, stop wasting your time trying to change this world and our country. Stop pushing your political agenda around. Stop wasting your opportunities to witness Christ's work in your life. Instead, turn those opportunities into God honoring, Christ preaching sessions where His most precious name is shouted above all names. Only this way wil knees bow and tongues confess Him and sould be saved.
What are you going to do with this? Are you going to preach Christ today? I challenge you to speak to one person today and invite them to know Christ. If they are a believer already, then edify them and strengthen them to the task at hand. I challenge you to stop wasting your time in the world and help people come out of it and into God's hand.
Amen!
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