“How would Jesus have Christians approach politics in America?”
To properly answer that question, we must begin with the issue of identity.
Many misguided approaches to political engagement on the part of self-identified followers of Jesus spring from a misplaced understanding of our identity. Many wrong ideas, wrong words, and wrong actions stem from that error. So, at the outset, we must come to terms with what the New Testament says about who we are.
The concept of identity is an incredibly powerful force. It’s foundational to our healthy development, beginning from early childhood. It cuts to the very heart of our sense of self and seeks to answer the primordial human question, ‘Who am I?’
Psychology discusses three general categories of factors that affect how we perceive or develop our identity:
Given Factors, which are things we have no control over, and are given at birth. Our ethnicity is one example.
Chosen Factors are characteristics that we choose to describe ourselves, our traits, and our skills. “I’m a climber” or “I’m a Tarheel” are examples of chosen factors.
Core Factors are the traits and factors that make us unique as individuals. They include things like values and beliefs and serve as the foundation of our sense of identity.
But, for the follower of Jesus, there is an even deeper aspect to Core Factors that we must consider when we ask, “Who am I?” and that is, who does God say I am? This is extremely important to our discussion because it’s often at the intersection between Chosen Factors and Core Factors that Christians are tempted to place things in the Core Factors bucket that have no business being there.
Why We Don't Know Who We Are
Of the regrettable losses within the American evangelical church over the past 100 years, probably none is as significant or had as far-reaching an impact as the loss of biblical literacy. The stark reality is that the Christians in the average church simply do not know the Bible in a capacity that allows it to be a readily influential force in their lives.
There are several reasons for this, and we’ll explore them in more detail in an upcoming installment in this series. First, it’s estimated it’s estimated that 95% of sermons in the modern era are topical. This means that pastors tend to jump around from topic to topic rather than focus on a particular book. This inevitably results in a disjointed, incomplete understanding of scripture and how it all interrelates. Often great sections of the New Testament and important, foundational topics are never taught. And considering that only 5% of any sermon is retained, it’s easy to see the scale of the problem.
Secondly, the average individual Christian does not prioritize reading, studying, and learning the Bible for themselves. A Pew Research study on the frequency of Bible reading among self-proclaimed Christians found that only 45% read the Bible once per week. Only 11% of Christians in the US read the Bible daily, and the average amount of time spent reading is 30 minutes. By comparison, the average person spends 2.5 hours browsing social media and 3.5-4 hours watching TV daily.
This means that what we “know” about the Bible doesn’t truly come from what we’re taught in a church context or from what we read and learn for ourselves. It comes from the thoughts and opinions of others, who themselves are not likely to have routinely heard expositional sermons or studied the Bible. The result is that we end up espousing what we think the scriptures teach or what we’ve heard someone else say on a tiktok video or a news program, and then base our beliefs, words, and actions on that.
Combine this with the reduction of the Gospel to little more than “believe in Jesus so you can go heaven when you die” it’s no wonder that so many struggle with understanding who they are in Christ and what they are called to be as his disciples. The simple truth is, the average Christian is not equipped to answer the question “How would Jesus have us approach politics in America?” because they don’t know or embrace the answer the question “Who does God say that I am.”
Answering that question in any depth would require a book (and probably a book series), but for our purposes, we going to look at five foundational declarations that the New Testament makes about who we are as disciples of Jesus. All of these themes are overarching and repeated in multiple places throughout the New Testament, so I encourage everyone to dig into these topics for themselves.
We are children of God.
John 1
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Philippians 2
14Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
I realize that starting with this one runs the risk of derailing us due to familiarity and cliché’. Every person is a child of God, right? Well, sort of. Everyone is a child of God in that He is their creator and source of life. But, those who come to Jesus for forgiveness move into a different kind of relationship with God as Father. In Jesus, He adopts us into His family with the purpose of us reflecting “the family image.”
Romans 8:29 says
29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
We are no longer our own.
I Corinthians 6
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price…
(See also Galatians 3:13-15 and I Peter 1:19)
Almost nothing rubs against the American spirit quite like being told that we’re not free to do what we want. But as a disciple of Jesus, that’s the clear teaching of the entire New Testament. 124 times, Jesus’ followers are referred to as ‘doulos’. In many modern translations, that Greek term is translated as “servant”, but that is a softening of the actual meaning. The word means slave. It is the word used to refer to those who were purchased and owned by a master, not just a hired hand or an indentured servant.
If we have come to Jesus for forgiveness, we have been purchased. We are his. He is the master, and we are not our own. So when we read Jesus’ command, for example, to do good to those who misuse us, we’re not at liberty to decide we’re not going to do that.
We are a new creation.
II Corinthians 5
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
When we placed our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sin, a profound change occurred. We were given new life by the entrance of the Holy Spirit who came to live within. We have to understand that everything changed. The “Old Man,” as older translations call it, or the sinful nature, or what I’ve come to call the Fallen Self that alienated us from God, died.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and [a]the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
All this began a process of transformation that God intends to complete, whereby we become more and more like Jesus in the very substance of our character so that we become like him in thought, word, and deed.
We have a new relationship with the world around us and the systems by which it operates.
John 18
36Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
I John 2
15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
I John 5
19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one. 20And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ.
Galatians 6
14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
I intentionally cited multiple passages here because this is such a crucial and yet woefully misunderstood truth for so many followers of Jesus here in America. So let me say it as plainly as I know how. According to the New Testament, the operational systems of this world, the mechanisms it uses, the values it espouses, and the ways and means of things like government – including democratic governments – are anchored in a spiritual context that is fundamentally set against God’s purposes and under the control of His adversary.
Colossians 2 warns us:
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ.
Governments, regardless of what type of government they are – despite being ordained by God as a restraint to evil – function according to human principles and values. They are driven by the Me, My, Mine of the Fallen Self and cannot do otherwise, for that is the spiritual matrix in which they exist.
I Corinthians 2 reminds us
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
This is why it is so damaging and misleading to assign the term “Christian” to any earthly nation. The hard reality is that countries can’t be Christian. Just as a business, or industry, or type of media can’t be Christian. They are earthbound entities that run according to the systems of this world and, at best, can only be influenced at very rudimentary levels by Christian thought and action. But they are of a different substance than the Kingdom of God. Like oil stirred into water, they can be roughly co-mingled, but they can never merge. Left alone, they will always separate because the two are incompatible at a molecular level. The same is true of the Kingdom of God and this world. Their spiritual substances are fundamentally different.
Being “Christian” isn’t defined, as so many suppose, as mere adherence to a set of beliefs or morals. It involves moving from death to life. It’s a complete transference from the kingdom of this world, into the Kingdom of God. It’s redemption from all that comes from humanity’s alienation from God, and that can only take place in the heart of a person.
So any attempt to “advance the Kingdom of God” through the ways and means of a fallen world’s system, like government-mandated morality, is always misguided and usually only ends up doing violence to the cause of the Kingdom of God. It’s attempting to accomplish wrong ends through incompatible means.
finally
We are representatives of the Kingdom of God.
II Corinthians 5
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
All that we’ve said thus far bears heavily on this final point. As disciples,
We. Are. Jesus’. Representatives.
As we go about our lives, the words we use and the actions we take reflect on Him. For good or for ill.
So, what does all this mean?
It means that our identity as followers of Jesus must flow from what God says about us as the Core Factor when we ask the question, “Who am I?”
We must recognize that God expects that reality to displace anything from the Chosen Factors category that has bled into our Core Factor bucket.
As followers of Jesus, Political party cannot be in our Core Factor bucket. If we are to be faithful to what the New Testament tells us, we cannot say I am a Democrat or, I am a Republican. Because some aspects of any party do not fully align with the values and priorities of the Kingdom of God.
As followers of Jesus, citizenship and patriotism cannot be in our Core Bucket. If we are to be faithful to what the New Testament tells us, we cannot say I am an American. Because many values and priorities that are integral to our country do not align with the values and priorities of the Kingdom of God.
As a disciple, I am none of those things. When we allow anything other than who we are in Christ to define us and determine our identity, Jesus is displaced at the center. The old-time preachers used to call that idolatry.
However, when we understand that we are redeemed children of God:
who have been given new life
who understand that we operate in a world that, in all its ways, runs counter to the ways of the Kingdom
who recognize that we are called to reflect the family image and represent Jesus and His Kingdom to those around us,
it equips us to conscientiously engage with the political realm with a light touch while avoiding unqualified support that violates our first allegiance to Jesus.
“How would Jesus have Christians approach politics in America?” The first part of that answer is that we must learn to live from our identity in Christ, understanding that “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
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