When Christians get involved in politics or think about voting in an election the thing that seems to be the highest priority is the moral standards of the politicians and political parties. Yet this is at odds with the message of the Gospel. The message of the gospel is that Jesus had to die on the cross because we were unable to meet the standard that the law required to know God and be like him. Jesus’ message was one of grace and love for the sinner and open opposition to the Legalistic teachings of the religious leaders. So if we were to create a political movement based on love what would it look like?
1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
So what does this well-known scripture tell us about how we should be involved in politics?
- If we don’t do it in love then it is meaningless and has no eternal value. All we do is make a loud noise but have no lasting effect.
- Our involvement must be done with patience and an understanding that not everyone will listen. We must wait for the opportunities that allow us to get our message across to the public.
- Our policies need to be kind, we should not support policies that treat people harshly like the current border protection policies of both major parties. Compassion needs to be a major component of any policies we support.
- We should not boast about our achievements but let our actions and the results speak for themselves. The media will want to know about our policies and platform and will provide ample opportunity for us to put forward our position and critique the policies of the other parties.
- We should not be proud of what we achieve but recognise that anything we do achieve is through God’s grace.
- We should not be part of the standard political manipulation that tries to shade the truth to match our political goals and thus bring dishonour to us and our opponents.
- We are not there for our own needs, but to represent the needs of the constituent that elected us.
- We should be calm and measured in our responses and avoid political grandstanding, i.e. Question Time in the Australian Federal Parliament and the great American filibuster are examples of the kind of behaviour to avoid.
- We should not seek revenge when opposing parties manipulate the truth and lie about what we say but depend on God to bring the truth about their behaviour into the light.
- We need to uphold sound moral standards but we also need to remember that Jesus only gave us two laws under the New Covenant, love God and love your Neighbour.
- We should support policies that protect and support the disadvantaged in our society and provide them with the opportunities to overcome their circumstances.
- We need to trust the advice of professionals and academics where it does not disagree with our faith. This means that we need to have a very good reason to support policies that are against mainstream academic and professional opinion.
- Our policies need to provide hope and avoid personal attacks.
- We need to persevere and not react to every wind that blows in the news cycle.
And remember our purpose in being involved in politics is not to achieve power and become the government but to show through our words and actions that Jesus is alive.