Tuesday, November 6, 2018

After the politics, will you listen?

After you vote today, after the cheering or cursing that will come tonight when the results are known, after the gloating or seeking of blame, will there be an opportunity for the Church to speak Truth and be heard before the partisan passions close people's hearts and minds ahead of the next election?  I know that in the modern American political system that campaigning never ends, that spin is ceaseless, and strategic planning a constant, but perhaps, if the LORD gives us this grace, we might take a step back, turn down the volume of rhetoric and vitriol we're listening to, and open ourselves up to the Word of God that it might speak to us.
What would happen if the people of God viewed the political realm through a Biblical lens instead of viewing the Bible/Church/Gospel through a political lens?  What would change in the Church (and individual Christians) if the world we live in, its problems, and our attempts to "solve" them, were seen through the mind of Christ?  Can you imagine a Church devoid of the need for wealth and power, and instead wholly focused upon holiness, righteousness, and servant-hood?  At present, as is typical in Church history, there are pockets of believers living their lives with Christ at the center, as obediently following the Word of God as their imperfect minds and still present sinful natures allow (As always, by God' s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit).  There are also, however, once more in typical Church history pattern, those within the Church (whether they truly belong to Christ or not) who have chosen instead to live according to the rules of the kingdom of man instead of the kingdom of God.  They retain a lust for power not acknowledging that our Lord and Savior sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven with unassailable glory and might, and it has corrupted them (us).
What would happen if the Church listened to God, not just some of us, and not just superficially, but most of us, and with all of our fiber and being?  I pray that God will be this gracious to us, will allow us a chance to mend our ways and seek him faithfully, and perhaps he will, but it also seems clear to me that as long as the Church is using politics to interpret the will of God, we won't hear the Word of the LORD when it speaks to us.

Philippians 2:5-8 New International Version (NIV)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

1 John 2:16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

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