How should Christians respond to the election?
Matthew 11:16-17, Isaiah 8:12-13
Now that all the fervor and ferment and passion and politicking is over for another year, it is time for Christians to take stock of their souls. Send a probe within your heart and see how you have responded to the outcome. Every election ends in outcomes that must feel mixed for the church of Jesus Christ. There are so many candidates at every level—national, state, local—and so many issues that captivate our attention that it is impossible not to feel very mixed and ambivalent. Some of the candidates we voted for enthusiastically won, and some lost. Some of the candidates we voted for with measured reluctance won and some lost. Now what?
I think it is good for Christians to remember that we should be looking at every significant issue of our times very differently than our non-Christian neighbors, co-workers, and family members. We have had a radical transformation of nature by our conversion to Christ. We have had our heart of stone removed and a heart of flesh replace it. We have been born again. We have been made new creations in Christ. Fundamental to that transformation is that we no longer see Jesus Christ from a worldly point of view. Though we once saw him that way, we do so no longer (2 Corinthians 5:16). Having worked that radical change in us, the Holy Spirit extends the new thinking to every area of life—public policy included. The word of God comes alive and transforms us by a constant renewing of our minds. Thus, it is to be expected that our thought process will be very different, and so will our emotional reactions.
the evanescent joys of victory and defeat are as the morning mist and dust in the wind by comparison with the building of the Kingdom of Christ.
And that change will seem strange to those unsaved people who know us and watch us. Jesus spoke of the people of his generation bewildered by both John the Baptist and Jesus, and the way each lived their lives. The leaders of that age were used to calling the shots: “We played the flute for you, and we sang a dirge for you” (Matthew 11:17, paraphrase). In other words, we told you when to be happy and celebrate, and when to mourn and lament as if someone has died. But John did not dance to their tune, and neither did Jesus. So why should we Christians now dance to the world’s tune after an election? What makes non-Christians rejoice should not move us at all, neither should what cause them to grieve. We should see things radically differently—by the way this or that outcome affects the display of God’s glory and the salvation of souls. Nothing else is of eternal consequence. So, the evanescent joys of victory and defeat are as the morning mist and dust in the wind by comparison with the building of the Kingdom of Christ.
In the same way, Isaiah 8 warns us to fear differently. What worldly people fear should not move the needle at all. In that chapter, God was warning wicked King Ahaz not to fear the temporary politics of the minor nations of his day who were threatening his rule. God makes it plain: he is the one Ahaz should be fearing, he is the one he should be dreading. The fear of the Lord… not of some earthly human power. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So also in our day, we should not be fearing this or that candidate’s election and their stated policies. If they are wicked and contrary to God’s word and God’s will, they will cause temporal suffering, no doubt. But God is sovereign and will overrule even that suffering for his ultimate purposes. So dear Christian reader, do not fear what the unbelievers fear, and do not dread it. God alone is the one you are to fear, and in Christ all your eternal fears are forever removed.
