I made a mistake. When I was preaching this past Sunday, I said that when we as Christians grow in faith, it will change the way we view the political sphere and change the way we treat each other amidst politics.
That statement is true, but my mistake was to forget that in these divisive times, people may have stopped listening halfway through and only heard this: “When we grow in faith, it will change our politics.” Because it is far too easy to turn that idea into a “me vs. them” statement, and we have far too much of that in our public discourse right now.
It is far too easy for someone who is Republican to hear that when someone becomes a better Christian, they will change their politics to be Republican. And a Democrat hears that when someone follows Jesus more closely, they will become a Democrat. A Christian Libertarian might hear it similarly, and we could just continue along any party line.
And that’s my mistake; I didn’t make sure to clarify that I meant something else entirely that I think is worth sharing with the people I care about here in Rock County.
I have been reading the Gospel of Luke, and in Luke 16:13, at the very end, Jesus declares that “You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus speaks of money, wealth, or possessions as something in people’s lives that can distract from one’s focus on God. Jesus is always inviting people to re-prioritize their life to make God the most important part of their life by putting time, energy, heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37) toward loving God first. We can conclude without a lot of mental gymnastics that anything put before God can be added to the list. Power, fame, sports, addictions, busyness, and yes … politics, too.
I’m going to say something that might seem obvious and might also make people angry. When we grow in faith, we simply become better followers of Christ. Period. We learn to love God more. Thus, because God loves us, we love God’s people more. We invite others to know Jesus because that is what Jesus did. We offer welcome, forgiveness, mercy, and even healing because that’s what Jesus did.
When Christians grow in faith, love God more, love God’s people more, and follow Jesus more closely, it will change the way Christians engage in the world.
My current working hypothesis is that belonging to a political group becomes way less important than caring for God’s people. It doesn’t mean Christians “check-out” of politics, but rather they reorient their lives to God first, thus changing how they act and engage with politics.
It is my prayer, dear readers, that all of us choose to treat each other with respect and dignity at all times, whether you are Christian or not.
We do not need the church to be a place of more divisiveness, and thus I hope this article helps show how following Jesus leads people into a life where loving God and loving others changes the way we live and transforms our hearts.
We will not do it perfectly, but we can keep showing up to try again because God is gracious enough to never tire of offering forgiveness.
When we as Christians grow in faith, it will change the way we view the world. We will see people as God sees them … as God’s beloved … and it will change the way we treat each other in all things.
