Recently I was listening to Shane and Shane’s “Vintage” album, and “Draw me Close” started to play, and the words struck me right from the beginning, “Draw me close to you, never let me go, I lay it all down again, to hear you say that your my friend.” And I am immediately brought into a place that begs the question, Am I really seeking Christ like I should be? I know this is a rather difficult question for many people who profess Jesus Christ as our Living King and Savior.
Like many of you, I am sure that you have been inundated by political leaning posts one way or another, a colleague of mine from Boise Bible College, recently posted about his politics getting in the way of following Christ, he leans left politically and I lean right, but I digress. Even then politics somehow became a part of the conversation. Here’s a question for all believers, is believing in Social Good inherently liberal or conservative? Is believing in law and order inherently a conservative trait alone? Am I really to believe that all liberals believe in disorder and chaos? or just a few?
A couple of a weeks ago I met with my good friend Nick at a local diner, and we discussed the notion of not loosing the middle as Christians, I am reminded of Billy Graham and Luis Palau who never endorsed any specific president or policies, but simply preached Jesus Christ. Graham in fact called and or physically visited nearly every president since FDR. He cared not for what political affiliation a president belonged too, he prayed for Bill Clinton and George Bush. I believe that Billy and Luis were doing what so many Christians have simply forgotten, They were seeking Christ.
As November approaches, we find ourselves in America surrounded by chaos and division, the media separates, creates an “us verses them” mentality. Which flies directly in the face of the prayer Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, that we would be “one” that is that we would become one in spirit, that we would love one another, and even more, that we would be as “one” as the Holy Trinity, or specifically Jesus and God are One. (John 17)
Paul repeats a similar message in the first letter of the Corinthians, when he states, “what part of the body can say to another, be gone I have no need of you.” Now while Paul is referring to the specific division of spiritual giftedness, the contextual point goes far beyond that, that division over things that are neither, main or plain, as Alister Begg states, have no place among the Bride of Jesus Christ.
Should we stand with the oppressed? Yes, should we stand with those who defend our lives and well being in this country, Yes. Is there racial division and tension in our society, yes?
All of things exist in America, but the answer is not behind one president or another, and this is often conflated in our culture… People all to often look towards political parties to solve problems that can only be solved by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in a life lived and committed to Jesus Christ, Religion cannot stop racism, changed hearts can only stop racism. this doesn’t happen by drawing lines in the preverbal sand.
Only when the Republican and the Democrat can see past their political differences and love each other, then and only then can real change happen in our country or any country for that matter
Something else that I have found rather fascinating, is that the early church seems to be not overly caught up in political issues, but rather takes action, instead of believing in political means to ending, let’s say poverty… The church started feeding the poor and overlooked… In seeking Christ they took individualized approaches to doing what Christ did individually, feeding the hungry, and social good, as I’ve mentioned before, should be the natural outflow of your and I’s Christian Faith. Hence we come back to this question…
“Am I seeking Christ?”
I surely hope so, as I read scripture I want to be like Christians of old, that saw a massive need in our culture and did something about it, but let me be clear: It wasn’t behind a riot, or a aggressive protest, nor was it behind some president as if he was our savior. Social good has always been accomplished by the church, and the people who give both their time and money and efforts, why? Because it is an outflow of the changed heart and the new life that is in Jesus Christ, Politics, like always will take something seemingly good and destroy it. I often point out that the church created nearly every social welfare system, food, shelters, hospitals, orphanages, drug rehab programs. these were all started by the Church, even schools and the universities were started from the Church… to forget this is to commit a fallacy.
So what do we do? I believe that we have allowed ourselves to become neutered by the political machine. We as Christians need to take back our creation that is social good, taking care of the homeless and the endangered, whether women, men, children, born and unborn… feeding them, clothing them, standing for the truly oppressed, Although looking to republicans or democrats in history only further our divide… Basically in the end, we should do as Christ would have done… I don’t see Jesus driving out Rome in Jerusalem or Israel, even though they oppressed God’s people, he instructed his followers to share the Good News with them, seeing the fulfillment of this was Cephas with Cornelius in the book of Acts… Cornelius being a Roman Centurion and obviously Cephas being a Jew… Paul even had many chances to preach to the Praetorian Guard in Rome, or the Council of Thinkers at the Areopagus in Athens, again more gentiles, behavior only changes because of the Gospel, Socialism can’t fix this, and neither can Capitalism, Politics can’t fix this, only Christ can…
Christians need to not be so caught up in following politics, but rather should spend our time Seeking Christ.