Often when I preach, I try to stay away from politics if it’s not pertinent to the text at hand. The American political landscape, at least from the perspective of Christ-followers, seems to be full of quicksand. Whether left-wing or right-wing, it is difficult to watch the news, to browse social media, or even at times to have simple conversations about current events without finding oneself knee-deep in the muck of partisanship, anger, and, at least for some, despair (either about the direction our country is headed should one’s chosen candidate lose this year’s election, or more broadly, about the mess we’re in to begin with). Given all this, I’d prefer to keep these things far away from the life of the Church if at all possible.
And yet, to some extent, these things have the potential to become unavoidable. Our political landscape has an impact on all of our daily lives, and if, from a Christian perspective, we believe that the Gospel too has an impact on every aspect of those same daily lives, then at some point these two worlds will intersect. If this is the case, then also at some point we as followers of Jesus will be forced to find some way to reconcile the two to one another in a way that is, hopefully, faithful to Christ above all things.
I am going to wade into the treacherous political world in this (and perhaps maybe more) post. But it should be noted that I am not writing here with the goal of bringing forth any spectacular healing to our political world. Even if I thought myself to be the guy to do that (which I don’t), there is only one Healer with the power to accomplish this, and I am not Him. My goal here is to provide some practical thoughts as we approach this year’s presidential election that can hopefully help us keep our hearts attuned to that of our Lord as we navigate the world in which we live.
The Need for Discernment
The realities of our political landscape leave Christians, ultimately, in desperate need of discernment. As I already said, our world is full of quicksand, which has the potential to do great harm to our Christian witness and to our living out of the Gospel should we fail to approach these things carefully. Navigating such a world requires wisdom, and as it pertains to politics, we need wise discernment specifically with regard to how we make sense of the political world in light of what we hold to be true concerning Christ and His Kingdom.
For guidance in this regard, we must turn to scripture. In 1 Peter chapter 2, a call is made for Christians to “[b]e subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him…” (ESV). In other words, Christians are called to live in submission to the powers that be within the political world. And yet in the same chapter, verse 17, Peter gives his audience, and by extension, his readers today, a teaching by which Christ-followers can begin to effectively navigate the political landscape, whether in the 1st century or the 21st century. “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood (some translations add, “of believers”). Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
Three different verbs are used here. In the English Standard Version, we are called to honor, to love, and to fear. In this order they increase in their significance and the level of commitment signified by each. To love is to embody a greater commitment than to honor. To fear is to act according to the greatest commitment of the three. The author is essentially providing here a hierarchy by which we ought to evaluate our commitments as Christ-followers, and with which we can hopefully begin to traverse the political landscape.
To begin, we are called to honor everyone. All people are worthy of our respect. All people have been created in the image of God Himself, and therefore all have been created with inherent dignity. Of course, all people have sinned. And yet, in spite of our sinfulness, God still desires that all would be saved (1 Timothy 2:3). As such no one is unworthy of respect and honor. No person with whom we disagree, no internet commenter, no supporter of *that* candidate (one way or the other), and no candidate themself should be treated with disrespect or dishonor as we navigate the world of politics. All people, made in the image of God, loved by God, are worthy of honor, and as such, we owe it to all people, political supporters, candidates themselves, and everyone in between, to treat others with charity and grace. When we malign a candidate on the other side as evil, we fail to honor them. When we write off supporters of a rival candidate as stupid, racist, misogynistic, or any other derogatory term, we fail to honor them. We honor everyone, for God is the Creator of all, and all were created in His image, with inherent dignity and value.
Next, we love the brotherhood of believers. This is more significant than simple honor. To love someone is to live out a deep and profound commitment to that person, and a commitment which connotes a sort of faithfulness. I am committed to my brothers and sisters in Christ in such a way that goes beyond my commitment to a candidate, to a political persuasion, or even to those around me who are not followers of Christ. This doesn’t mean that I disregard those who don’t know Him – I am, after all, called to make disciples of them – but my greater commitment is to the existing Body of Christ on earth.
Perhaps one of the greatest frustrations in my heart is when I see Christians turn on one another on account of politics. Even more than frustrating, maybe a better term to describe this is heartbreaking. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to our Lord Jesus. Support of a political candidate is so minute in the grand scheme of Christ’s eternal reign. Love the brotherhood of believers. When Christ returns, I would venture a guess that it will matter little who an individual supported in the 2024 presidential election, and it will matter greatly how one chose to care for the Body of Christ in the midst of it.
The next step on the hierarchy brings us to its peak. Fear God. As followers of Christ, if we treat any commitment as more significant in our lives than our commitment to the Lord, we have fallen into grave error. And the challenging part of this is that few among us would willingly admit that we’re more committed to a political candidate than we are to our Lord. However, often an honest look at how we spend our time, resources, and energy will reveal that we spend more time acting out and even simply thinking about our political commitments than we do our commitment to the Creator and Redeemer of our souls. If we spend more time thinking about the political world than we do the Lord Himself, we are in deep trouble. To fear God is to submit to Him in all things, and a significant part of submitting to Him is submitting our time to Him. If we look at the ways in which we prioritize our time, and the living out of our commitment to the Lord is second to anything whatsoever, then we have not lived in faithful submission to Him. We give all things over to our Lord in fear and reverence in order that He may accomplish His will in us, and that He may be glorified. Everything else must pale in comparison to our devotion to the Lord.
The final piece of this verse brings us down from the peak, and actually all the way back to where we began. We are called to honor those with political power. Of course, we don’t view our current politicians as emperors. Yet, we do face a similar temptation to that of early believers who had to resist calls to worship the Roman emperors as divine. Perhaps we don’t explicitly refer to politicians as god-like figures (at least I hope we don’t), but our rhetoric often toes this line. We begin to see our candidate as the savior of our democracy, the one who will come in and bring us to a place of virtue and goodness and prosperity, while the opposing candidate is viewed as despicable, an agent of evil or of Satan himself (and contrary to popular belief, both left and right are guilty of this).
It is very significant in this text that the emperor is placed on the same level as all who are outside of the brotherhood of believers, therefore being both worthy of honor as well as less important to the Christian than the family of believers. Our political candidates, no matter who, ought to be less important to us than the brothers and sisters who sit next to us in the pews on Sunday morning. And yet, they are still worthy of honor and respect by virtue of the fact that they too are human beings made in the image of God, as mentioned above with respect to all people. However, this means that our commitments to any particular candidate must fall subservient to our commitment to the brothers and sisters we have in Christ Jesus, and all things must fall beneath our commitment to the Lord Himself.
All of this to say, our priorities in the political world need to align with what we read here in 1 Peter. We honor all people, including those in politics on the basis of human dignity and Christ’s love for all people. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ because we have been bound to one another by the blood of Christ. And we fear God. He is the only one worthy of our worship. He is the one to whom we submit all things. He is the one who lives and reigns through Christ, and who will go on to reign far after whoever enters the White House in January of 2025 leaves that office. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.