Politics and the Christian

 Politics and the Christian

When you do a search on the word politics or political in the Bible (ESV) you get zero matches. The Bible doesn’t use those words, but the Bible does, however, have some things to say about government and a Christian’s behavior.

There are many verses on government and the life of a believer, but the passage that keeps jumping out at me is Romans 13:1-7 (ESV).

Verse 1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

Isn’t that powerful? God has instituted the governments that exist and we are to obey them (provided, of course, that the government is not issuing orders that are in direct violation of God’s Word).

Think about it, God is telling us (through Paul, the inspired writer of Romans) that we are to obey and respect (verse 7) every position of authority in our lives. This involves the government over its citizens, the Church over its members, parents over their children, and even bosses over their workers.

Governments are here to reward or promote good and restrain and discipline evil. The question is: what is good and what is evil. Christians should be able to answer that with ease.

God expects us to speak out against the evils of society, but we need to do it in a godly and law abiding manner. Two great examples of this life are Daniel and Paul.

As Christians, we are to proclaim the Gospel to the world. We are given that commission in Matthew. Many Christians are politically active and there if nothing wrong with that in itself. The problem arises when a Christian is more concerned with politics than with the Gospel.

We know there are problems with our government and our leaders. They are not perfect. However, we are to hate the sin, not the sinner. Too often, Christians turn people away from the Gospel rather than turn them to it.

Instead of focusing our time and attention on changing or influencing laws, let’s spend our time on changing lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need to remember to consistently pray for our leaders so that they may have the will of God revealed in their life. Does your life show the transforming power of the Gospel?