Teaching Tuesday: Before You Vote

Series: Kingdom Politics
Sermon: Before You Vote (10.27.24)

I thought it might be useful to overview what I preached on Sunday, in case not everyone remembers the six questions to ask before you vote.

Here they are:

Is God calling me to vote? 
God is ultimately in control, and that makes a whole bunch of our political fights so petty and temporary. But God in his grace has entrusted authority and dominion over his creation to men and women made in his image. And this comes with the responsibility for Christians to reflect the image of God and reflect his rule in the world, meaning that we should care about people the way we believe God cares about them.

Jesus said to “seek first his kingdom and righteousness” and that does not just mean for our own personal lives but for creation in general. So if we desire human flourishing as God does, we have to desire that governments administer justice by promoting good, punishing evil, and protecting people from harm.

So to the extent that we believe casting a vote for a particular person or policy does indeed help move the needle in the direction of righteousness, then yes, Christians should vote.

Who has my heart? 
Does Jesus have your heart? If he doesn’t, then I invite you to yield your heart to him. And that’s about way more than politics, but it does include politics.

If he does, then I invite you to realize the weight and the wonder of what it means to abide in him and in his body, the church. The church doesn’t belong to the Republicans or the Democrats, the church belongs to Christ Jesus.

All of our trust is in his word. All of our allegiance is to his mission. All of our hope is in his rule  and in his promise to return for those whose hearts belong to him.

What does my neighbor need? 
Loving God and loving neighbor means that our personal preferences have to take a back seat when we go about our daily lives, when we show up at church, when we seek first his righteousness, and when we participate in politics.

Before we vote, we should pause and ask questions like “Whose good should I promote with my vote?” “What goals should I prioritize with my vote?”

And we need to decide if the answers to these questions are driven by devotion to Jesus in his word or by politicians in this world.  

What is the Christian position?
Being a Christian is more than just believing true things about Jesus. We know from scripture that even Satan and his demons believe. Maybe the simplest definition of a Christian is a Bible-believing, gospel-embracing follower of Jesus.

And he means to follow him, always, above anyone and anything else, in all areas of life, no matter the cost.

So if we are Christians, if we are Christ-followers, that has to affect our approach to political issues. And here’s where it gets complicated. Because the Bible is not a how-to manual for every single political topic.

So we can approach each issue with two categories in mind:

The Christian position according to the Bible. When the Bible is clear, our actions are clear.

And, the Christian position according to our wisdom. When the Bible isn’t clear, we have to rely on our balancing of biblical principles and how they can point us to a position that honors God and loves our neighbor.

How do I weigh the issues? 
We can consider two factors here: biblical clarity, and practical consequences.

Our first priority is to hold fast to the truths and commands that are obvious in God’s word and that have direct application to political positions in the world. How straight is the line between scripture and a particular political issue?

The straighter the line, the more weight that issue should carry in our decision making. The blurrier the line, the less weight it should carry because the less sure we can be that our opinions are aligned with God’s demands.

Our second priority is to consider the practical consequences. We all think what we support is for the good, but politics is not a zero sum game. We live in a world of trade-offs. Almost nothing is all good or all bad.

We have to evaluate the potential consequences of the political decisions we make, including the effects of those decisions in our communities, our country, and our world.

Remember, our primary desire is not preservation of a particular way of life or promotion of a particular agenda, it’s praying, voting, and living to make our world more like the Kingdom of God.  

And our main goal is not political victories, but faithfulness to Christ as a unified church, even as Christians cast different ballots.

Am I eager to maintain unity in the church? 
The Bible wasn’t written to affirm our political perspectives. It should certainly inform our political opinions, but when you read the New Testament you will not see a bunch of emphasis or effort on trying to change the world through politics or government action.

You will see a whole lot of emphasis and effort on trying to get the church to be the church.

When our faith informs our politics, we can be a church of people with diverse political perspectives because we are unified in Christ Jesus and we’ll always have the same goals, even if we have different opinions sometimes about how to achieve them.

Church unity is a question of identity and priority. If we belong to God first, and if we love God most, then our differences of opinion are overwhelmed by our service to each other.

That sounds like the kind of church I want to be a part of. How about you?

To know Him and make Him known!
- Pastor Brady