We are dual citizens, responsible and active members of both God’s spiritual kingdom and earthly kingdom. And if we seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength—and to love our neighbor as ourselves—then we should care to some degree about politics and elections and the role of government in our land.He goes on to say that some of us care too much about politics. Taylor says, "We all are tempted to idolatry and we all need to be warned against it. 'Some trust in chariots and some in horses [and some in political candidates], but we trust in the name of the LORD our God' (Ps. 20:7)."
But some of us care too little. We should care about voting and the direction of our earthly nation because as Christians everything we do (including voting) is to be done to the glory of God. Also, we are to care about the good of our neighbor. "If you have to choose between evangelism and politics, choose evangelism. Saving an eternal soul is more important than fixing a temporal need. But most of the time, we don’t have to choose."
His summary is helpful. "There are more important things in life than politics. It’s easy to become an idolatry. But it’s also easy to be too apathetic."
So, let's be praying for the upcoming election and let's be thinking about how our heavenly citizenship should impact the way we exercise our role as a citizen of our country.
The current prime minister of Quebec ran on a platform to disallow civil servants' religious motifs (and a referendum on provincial independence). Invariably, a platform like this incites a number of camps and may instigate constituents south of the border to preempt their own legislation. Before anyone starts to do this, let me ask if a single soul would be saved were every neck in Quebec to wear a gold cross?
ReplyDeleteJesus died on a wooden cross in order for people to be forgiven of their sins. Souls get saved when people ask for forgiveness. I do not believe a gold cross necklace appears in the soul-saving process.
Romans 13:1-7 says to subject ourselves to the governing authorities on Earth because they are agents of God. Latin professors have written countless books on how despicable most of the Roman emperors were, yet God put them there.
Living in a democracy it is easy to be distracted into doing God’s will by supporting the right political group. Do not forget that God allowed them all to be where they are. Vote your conscience, but realize countless times men have preached God’s will in public while lust and greed managed them in private.