“I go to church to learn about Jesus, not talk politics.” This is a common attitude held by many Christians, but is it consistent with what Jesus taught?
According to Matthew 13:33 Jesus said the kingdom of God was like leaven. The nature of leaven (yeast) is to spread throughout the container in which it is placed. God’s kingdom is supposed to spread through every area of society including business, politics, entertainment, religion (obviously), and anything else we can name.
The truth is if we are followers of Christ, we cannot be apolitical. Jesus influenced every realm of society He touched, the same way He wants us to influence every realm of society we touch. This includes politics.
When we say, my faith shouldn’t influence my politics, really what we are saying is, “Jesus I’m not all the way in. I’m not completely submitted to you. I want the political part of my life for me.” Think about it, can you really imagine Jesus standing in a voting booth saying, “I can’t let my faith affect how I vote? I’m gonna vote for the candidate that is in favor of killing babies because he has a good economic policy.”
Jesus’s faith affected everything He did in life. He would vote in line with His faith and encourage others to do the same. It is a myth that Christians shouldn’t talk politics or seek to implement Christian values into the political system. We have a mandate from heaven to do so!
This is important because we are facing a crossroads in our country, where the church is going to have to place more emphasis on teaching biblical political values and influencing our governmental system in order to stay open.
We have freedom of religion as long as we are free, but we have now hit a point in society, where the freedoms we have enjoyed all of our lives are being taken away from us.
Just last week, Governor Gavin Newsom of California banned singing in churches to limit the spread of COVID-19. Some Christians would argue that he is doing the right thing because he is trying to limit the spread of disease, but that actually misses the point. We have a right to be free. According to the Bible and our Constitution government doesn’t have the right to forbid us to go to church or infringe upon how we worship.
People who are in favor of banning singing are putting restrictions on how we practice our faith. Many Christians know that God brings deliverance through worship and we want to gather and worship the Lord right now because we want to see the end of disease and the healing of our nation. Governor Newsom is saying we can’t practice our faith to get the break-through. The state is telling Christians how to worship which is a clear violation of the First Ammendmant. If the right to sing is taken away, what’s next? The right to preach? It’s is a slippery slope.
In many of our grace circles where we focus on the unmerited favor of God, we focus our teaching against the leaven of the Pharisees which is the legalistic way of thought. We realize that the legalists hated and killed Jesus. We often forget that according to Luke 13:31 King Herod who represents the political system also wanted to kill Jesus. This is why Jesus also warned against the leaven of Herod. If you study the book of Acts you will find that Herod killed James and imprisoned Peter. Check out this message to learn more.
Satan will use either dead religion or politics to stamp out the church in the earth. He’s the one that started the myth that churches shouldn’t talk politics and that Christians should keep their political views to themselves. The truth is, he’ll use anything he can to shut down the cause of Christ. Other avenues he is currently using are the media, public education, entertainment, and the business world.
This is why it is incumbent on the church to take the gospel to every sphere of influence in society. I understand it is uncomfortable, but we must or we won’t have freedom of religion anymore. The lack of comfort we feel when we stand up for our faith is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s responsibility is to comfort us when we face persecution.
If this article is making you uncomfortable, you need to get alone with Jesus. You need to ask, am I all in? Do I have parts of my life that I hold back? Do I have a need to be accepted by society?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, it is ok. Jesus isn’t mad. He wants to help you and His grace will help you go all in because you have His acceptance. Just be real with Him. He is love and He died for you. There is nothing He won’t do for you. To learn more about how to overcome condemnation check out this message!
We are in an important season in history. Let’s wake up and realize the time we are in so God can use us mightily. 1 Chronicles 12:32 teaches the sons of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command. Our ability to discern our season will give us the ability to have influence over our world!
This is what we were born for. We were created to rule and reign in life with Christ Jesus. Let’s wake up and stand up and walk in our God-given authority. Carpe diem!
