There is one spirit raging in the body of christ today that has taken so much ground, caused so much division, destroyed so many witnesses, and damaged the reputation of Jesus to such an extent that I feel I simply must write against it. Im talking about the political spirit. It is a spirit that has forgotten love. It condemns and accuses the world. It integrates worldly concepts as though they were from above. It revels in greed, anger, and selfishness. I have seen it take renowned prophets of this day and age and turn them into nothing more than pot stirring political pundits. I have seen it take friends and send them down a rabbit hole of conspiracies until their thinking is so corrupted they can not tell friend from foe or truth from fiction.I have seen it rob the joy and peace of the people who are called to rest and trust in God most high. Now I’m going to do my best to expose it to anyone that will hear and see, and hopefully convince a few.
I have seen many arguments in the last few years about how Christians have a duty to be involved in politics, and to avoid a militant stance is to bury one’s head in the sand and be an ineffective agent of change in the world. These days it is hard to tell the difference between a member of the republican party and an American christian.
Let me tell you, if a follower of Jesus Christ is indistinguishable from a lost soul, there is a problem. For a long stretch of our history as a nation Christian morals were foundational, and I believe people have lost sight of the identity of a believer as a holy (set apart) entity. We have grown comfortable and accustomed to the world acknowledging some of the way of life of a Christian. That is to say, as long as the lost were upholding some sense of the morality of God then we were complacent to let them live their lives. I think America has been ineffective in reaching out to lost souls, to impacting culture as salt and light, and to walking out the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Now that the world is finally gaining some traction (reference anything you don’t like here — abortion, critical race theory, gender fluidity, gun control, socialism), we have forgotten what it is to be a witness, and we are fighting back with the same carnality and depravity of the side we have deemed enemies.
Allow me to share with you some scriptural examples. In Romans 13 we find:
13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue,
then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Be honest with yourself, when you read that does your mind immediately reject it or look to some circumstance for which the text doesn’t mean what it says? I have seen many twist the above text. They say “this is the corrupt using scripture out of context”. They say “but there are examples when it is obvious we should not follow man’s laws but rather look to God’s laws”. So for the sake of indulgence, let’s look at some examples of biblical disobedience.
Examine the life of Joseph, who faced actual persecution. Betrayed and abandoned by his brothers, he spent 16 years as a slave
and prisoner in Egypt. As a servant of Potipher (a pagan official), he was found to be so reliable and trustworthy his authority continued to abound. Then falsely accused by Potipher’s wife, Joseph kept his purity but was condemned to jail.
In prison Joseph did not grumble or condemn, and God gave him an out in the form of Pharoahs dreams. In the end, Joseph found himself governing nearly all of Egypt and was able to save the nation of Israel and his family that betrayed him. He was faithful to God throughout his entire set of ordeals, but was serving in the houses of Pagans. His humility and trustworthiness
earned him favor and power. Would we have reacted the same way? Would we be found yielded to the authority of those that reject our God and our ways? Or would we have rebelled and offered nothing?
Or examine the life of Daniel. A jewish man, one of the chosen people, abducted and forced into serving the Babylonian kingdom. Again his service to pagans is exemplary and blameless. When the evil of man attempts to condemn him through the king’s decree that no prayers be made save for those to the King as God, we find Daniel’s insurrection. He simply continues to pray. He does not make bold declarations or convince others to rise up. He just prays. Now here’s the kicker; he accepts the punishment with grace. Being thrown into a den of lions to die, God saves him because there was no fault in him. This is of course paralleled with the other Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whose crime was simply to not worship an idol. They also accepted the punishment with grace, walking into a fiery furnace assured of God’s salvation.
These men were all punished for not rejecting their faith. Yet they served pagan kings and nations honorably. Those who did not follow God were blessed by the service of those who did. The believers were not thorns in their side, there was not enmity and strife, there was not cursing and condemning.
Going back to Romans 13, remember that these words were written by the apostle Paul, a man who was jailed multiple times, beaten and flogged repeatedly, and suffered much from Jewish and Roman authorities. Do you think he wrote that passage with some secret code that all believers were called to rebel and despise those rulers instead? No, in fact his, and all the other early church members, only act of rebellion was to either preach or pray in the name of Jesus. Again, just like Daniel and Joseph, these early Christians were a blessing to their communities, serving the poor and lost, and they took the punishment for their faith with profound humility and grace.
Yet look at the state of the American church now. During the covid pandemic, churches came under fire for gatherings and mask violations. We were asked to mask up and keep social distancing, and the ugliness that emerged from the body of Christ was astounding. We deemed our sufferings greater than those whose faith cost them their lives, and we whined like children and cursed our rulers and authorities. We rebelled not in the spirit of faith, but in a selfish and dishonorable way. We spewed hate across the internet, and joined in the grumbling and displeasure of everyone willing to commiserate. And is this not the standard found in the church today? Enmity and vitriol abound, where humility and grace should be found. We name call, we curse, we complain, and all the while we destroy our witness. God can not use people like this, his church cannot be effective. We will not serve God under threat of the fire or the lion’s den, we demand the world not only acknowledge our faith, but sanction it. If you find rebellion the answer, which in this case I do, continue to meet with believers and pray, hold services, do the work of God, but you must take the punishments with grace. If the world gives you fines, pay the fines. If the world puts you in jail, worship in the jail cells. In this our witness will be found powerful and blameless, just like the heroes of old. Follow God without bringing shame to His name.
Another block of scripture in Titus, again written by Paul says:
3 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.
In his guidelines for Christian life, these are the things I find. He hammers it in again to be subject to authority. Then he lays out a life of peace lived to the glory of God. I can’t for the life of me in scripture find one example of the kind of political activism people are advocating for today. I never find it written that we should be enemies with
everyone in a certain political denomination or system of beliefs, and I gaurantee you they that wrote the new testament were under greater persecution than American’s have ever dreamed of.
In 1 Timothy 2:
2 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and
pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Is this the picture of your private life? I often wonder when I see rants and memes coming from born again believers if they have consulted God about anything they are saying. Have they prayed earnestly for the president or representatives they so quickly condemn? Are we a benefit to Joe Biden as Daniel was to Nebuchadnezzar or Joseph was to Potipher and pharoah?
The goal of the political spirit is this; to take our rest and eyes away from God, and to put our hope and faith in the systems of men to redeem the land. The goal is to destroy the witness of the church. It is doing so now. We freely forgive sexual immorality and rejoice in murderers if they are the same political affiliation. We condemn the men and women of the world instead of the principalities and powers that reign. People see the hatred and divisive nature and say “God is hateful and divisive, critical and controlling” and reject him. We praise uncouth leadership saying “we need a president (or congressmen or whatever role), not a priest” — this is the same spirit of the Jews demanding a king over their priests. We lump in so many topics like socialism and gun control with the concept of freedom, having lost total sight of the freedom that is only found in Christ. Our minds are poisoned with fear and anger.
There are also verses saying that we as believers are called to rejoice in suffering, and not be surprised when trials or persecution come from believing in the name of Jesus. Search your heart and find if any news story or attack on the church has spurred you on to rejoice that you were found worthy of it? The flesh would have you react to modern events and politics with disgust and outrage, but the spirit revels in the chance to shine.
In repentence and rest is our salvation. The bible says “if MY people will humble themselves and pray”, it is not about what the lost are doing or what laws are being passed, God is so far above any of that. Yet if the people of God could find humility and true prayer, the nation would be moving the direction they so desire. To humble yourselves is to let go of the hate and strife, to find a way to bless your enemies and those that would persecute you or your beliefs. To pray
is to move the hand of God for the betterment of the world. Don’t just pray to fix someone, or worse, to destroy them, pray to honor the will of God on earth, which is that all would come to salvation. Live with eternity in mind and rebuke the political spirit if it has seized your heart and soul. Turn your eyes back to things above and focus on simple and kind lives to find yourself beyond reproach. Engage in politics, vote or support who you must for your conscience, but do so with the reminder that God is above any man or law. It is not weakness to honor His name or likeness with your character. Pride would demand you be bold and attack the world, but the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Abiding Grace 