"How to engage in politics without losing your soul"

With all the uproar from all sides of the political spectrum regarding Sen. Obama's faith and now Gov Palin's I thought I'd offer this article posted on SmartChristian.com. This entry was posted March 31, 2008

HOW TO ENGAGE IN POLITICS WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL

I (author) post this based on Jesus' statement found in Mark 8:36, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" The reason I chose this convicting passage is because over the years I have watched many Christians who became zealously active in partisan politics actually "lose their souls."

Below I offer 10 bibilical guidelines on how Christians can engage in politics without "losing their soul."

1. Christians must never allow themselves to equate the biblical Kingdom of God with any human political party or nation (John 18:36, Isaiah 9:7, Matthew 6:33, Philipians 3:20, Revelation 11:15). As Christians we must be diligent in maintaining and preserving the distinctiveness between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. We must never fuse the two. The great "utopian illusion" that easily enters our politics is that peace, harmony, and prosperity for all can be brought about in the world through human political means.

2. Christians must never allow ourselves to elevate specific politician to messianic or savior status (1 Peter 3:15). In our entertainment and celebrity culture, it is becoming more common for people to infuse politicians with almost messianic or savior status. In other words, people begin to beleive a politician's extraordinary promises and that they can actually single-handedly produce almost supernatural social results. As Christians, we have one Lord, and we must resist all attempts to exalt any human politician to unreal heights.

3. Christians must not just vote, but more importantly, we must pray for our government and the leaders of all political parties (Matthew 5:44, 1 Timothy 2: 1-2). In our polarized society, many Christians are tempted to bless the politician or party they support, and curse the other one they don't. How unbiblical! The Bible is clear, we are to pray for all political and government leaders, even our political enemies.

4. Christians must always remember that our ultimate security is in Christ and the unshakeable kingdom of God, mo matter what presidential candidate or party wins (Hebrews 12:26-29). One of the dangers that many Christians seem to fall into is that we begin to elevate the outcome of presidential elections to an apocalyptic status. In other words, if our presidential candidate or party does not win, we begin to see it as the end of the world. This is what I call the "Y2K Complex". When we allow ourselves to understand politics in apocalyptic terms, we at the same time express unbelief in the sovereignty and Lordship of God over his creation and human history. Yes, elections have real consequences for people, but in the larger scheme of history, don't worry, no matter who becomes our president, God is in control and will take care of things.

5. Christians must never allow ourselves to bring divisiveness and polarization of political parties into church, the family of God (Romans 16:17, 1 Corinthians 1: 11-12). We cannot allow partisan politics to divide the body of Christ. Individual Christians have freedom of conscience before God and the bible, and as a result, we must accept the fact that there will be diversity of political opinions in church. We must never allow diverse political perspectives to cause conflict and divisions in church.

(Enough for now. I'll present the last 5 guidelines in my next post. These first 5 give much pause for reflection.)