Mike Focht 9/20/2024
Talking politics seems to either make people live or cringe. There are a lot of dangers in this realm, and often too much emotional heat with too little divine light. That always makes for a bad combination. What I want to point out is that Satan is aware of political talk and has used it to his advantage for quite a long time.
We see this clearly in the life and times of Jesus Christ. Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?”
But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me?”
Satan and his proxies used hypocritical political conversation to test Jesus Christ into sinning with His words. We need to see this and take serious and sober note of it because Satan is still using hypocritical political conversation to catch God’s servants in their words and cause them to confuse their priority of service. At the very least, anyone who thinks they can easily and flippantly jump into political discussions without sinning with their words isn’t thinking seriously about their Lord and their adversary.
There are two things I can clearly say from Scripture concerning talking politics. First, we must follow the example of Jesus Christ. We are told that Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. There is no witness before the rulers and kings of the earth like Jesus Christ. So what do we see from Him? What was His witness before the kings of the earth in His day?
What do we see when Jesus stands before Pilate? Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.” At the very least, Jesus was not stressed about the unjust power over Him. Jesus didn’t lose His temper. Jesus didn’t scald, ridicule, belittle, or even rebuke Pilate. Jesus was calm, composed, and surrendered to God. He was a living witness to the power and authority of God. He is our example. This is the aim we are to have before all human authority when we talk about human power.
This attitude was echoed and followed by the apostles. When instructing Titus on how to teach the churches and their leaders, Paul keeps the idea of our witness as higher than our political ideal. He writes: Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
Paul commands submission to human government in deed and speech! If our speech about foolish, disobedient, deceived, lustful, malicious, and hateful political leaders who are unsaved is not good, peaceful, gentle, and showing humility, we have lost the battle. I cannot fight sin with sin. We are called to be witnesses of Jesus Christ, not members of a particular political party or persuasion.
If that is the Biblical standard, and it most certainly and clearly is, I am afraid that most Christians today are not mature enough in their walk with Jesus Christ to talk politics. We are falling for Satan’s old hypocritical ploy to have us blow our witness and confuse our kingdom priorities.
So next time you find yourself talking politics, remember three things:
1) Satan is there to trick me.
2) Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, is my example.
3) Therefore, I will not act or speak like those without Christ’s life. The emphasis of my political talk will be the authority of the kingdom of God and the life of Christ through kind, peaceable, gentle, and humble speech. Only then will God be glorified, Christ pleased, the Holy Spirit obeyed, and the true battle won—no matter the political outcome.