America just turned 250, and many days it feels less like the United States and more like the Divided States. Friendships end over elections. Families stop speaking. Coworkers bristle at each other. And the gap between opinions seems to grow wider every year.
The church has not escaped it. In many congregations, pastors and members wave their partisan flags proudly, in the pulpit and in the pews. So how should a follower of Jesus live in a politically divided nation?
Party First, Country Second, Kingdom Last?
Here is an honest question worth asking: what comes first for you? For many Christians, if we are truthful, the order is party first, country second and kingdom last. A quick scroll through the last two weeks of our posts would settle the matter.
It is tempting to think the fix for a divided nation is political: prayer back in schools, the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, or Christians in every office. Those things may be good, and they may shape how a believer votes. But they are not God’s solution. The solution is, and always will be, followers of Christ and the church operating as kingdom citizens above all else.
Scripture says believers have received something no election can give or take away: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28). The people of faith in Hebrews 11 confessed that they were “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). A Christian can be a proud citizen and hold real political convictions, but above all else, a Christian is a citizen of the kingdom of God.
Appealing to Lesser Powers
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul rebukes believers who were taking one another to court before unbelievers: “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you” (1 Corinthians 6:7). The passage is about lawsuits, but it reveals a bigger principle. The church has something greater than the systems of this world, and when believers keep running to those systems as if they held the answer, they settle for less.
When kingdom citizens appeal to lesser powers, they get lesser results. And it represents the kingdom poorly before people who are watching to see whether our faith is real.
Should Christians Stay Out of Politics?
No. Christians should be politically involved. Vote. Be informed, be aware and be involved. It is fair to make your opinion known. But it is possible to do all of that without being harsh or hateful toward the people on the other side.
What Christians cannot do is tie their wins and losses to any political outcome. When a candidate you strongly oppose wins, God has not lost control. Scripture shows Him placing even wicked kings over Israel and Judah to accomplish His purposes, and it teaches that “there is no authority except from God” (Romans 13:1). Whoever holds office, God is up to something.
The nation may have a long and prosperous future, and Christians should pray and work toward it. But even if it did not, believers would not lose. They have the kingdom.
The Real Enemy
The person across the aisle is not the enemy. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). A Christian’s opponent is not a Democrat neighbor or a Republican neighbor. The real enemy wants to divide God’s people and keep the kingdom from advancing. Here are three of his tactics to watch for.
### 1. The Algorithm
Not long ago, people at least chose which lopsided news source they would consume. Today, social media feeds choose for us, and they are built to keep us clicking. Political content, especially negative political content, spreads fastest, and hostile posts are rewarded with more visibility. Over time the platforms train people to post more outrage and to feel more outrage.
The result is a distorted picture. The angriest people on camera are not the average American. The world is not as bad as the feed makes it look, and people with other views are not as different as we think. The algorithm does not care whether you are liberal or conservative. It wants you consistently outraged, because outrage keeps you scrolling. And outrage leads to disdain, bitterness and hate.
### 2. Our Own Assumptions
Disdain for the other party has grown sharply in a single generation. More and more people see anyone on the other side as dishonest, immoral and unintelligent. That leads to sweeping assumptions: that every member of the other party agrees with its most extreme voices.
But not every Republican agrees with everything every Republican says, and not every Democrat agrees with everything every Democrat says. Christians should have no tolerance for racism, and for the sake of the country they should stand against socialism, communism and Marxism. They should not assume the worst about every neighbor who votes differently. Often there is a reason we would understand if we only took time to listen. “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion” (Proverbs 18:2). Seek to understand.
### 3. Extremes
In Matthew 17, a father brings his son to Jesus: “For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water” (Matthew 17:15). Fire and water are polar opposites, and the boy was tormented by a demon until Jesus set him free. The far left and the far right are dangerous places to live. Ideas like open borders with no enforcement, abolishing the police and prisons, or deporting entire ethnic and religious groups are extreme, and living in extremes opens the door to the work of the enemy. Kingdom people keep consideration, nuance and diplomacy in their lives.
How to Stay Kingdom-Minded While Politically Involved
Leave your politics in the parking lot. Church should be a place where conservatives, liberals and people who do not care about politics at all can sit side by side and hear the word of God. That does not mean ignoring what is happening in the world. It means keeping the main thing the main thing, and His name is Jesus. Jesus Himself told His disciples there were things He would not say yet, but “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13).
Detox from the world. Constant noise and instant access drain us. Many believers get a few minutes of Scripture a week and many hours of cable news. Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). A daily time of Bible reading, prayer and worship washes off the world system, the way Christ cleanses His church “by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26).
Jesus prayed for His followers, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14). Presidents, governors and congressmen matter, but they are not a believer’s highest appeal. That belongs to Jesus Christ, “the ruler of kings on earth” (Revelation 1:5).
The divide in the nation is real. But the church does not have to live inside it. We have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.