The CHRISTIANing Podcast
The CHRISTIANing Podcast
Ep.53 - When Your Pastor Gets Political Pt.1
Political activism from the pulpit is a rising trend in evangelical churches across the nation. This phenomenon isn't reserved to just one side of the political aisle either. Whether pastors are pushing for social justice related issues on the left or religious liberty issues on the right, both sides are trying to leverage the evangelical vote for their preferred party. What do you do if you feel like you are stuck in the middle of this crossfire? In this conversation we seek to answer four crucial questions from the scriptures that are at the heart of this newfound church experience. It is our hope that the answers the scriptures provide can be a beacon of hope and clarity for your as you attempt navigate these current divisive waters. This, part 1, episode answers the first two questions and look forward to the remaining questions being answered in part 2 coming out soon. Enjoy!
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SPEAKER_01:right, everyone, and welcome back to the Christianing podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you, as always, for joining another conversation, another important conversation. Let me say this from the front. of the episode. I hear a lot of yelling and screaming in the background. I apologize. It is spring break at the Scott House, which means I have three of my four kids in the front room playing WWE, wrestling, and it just... I don't have the heart to make them stop. They need to be enjoying life, having fun, doing their thing, so... That means it's hard to find a quiet corner of the house to record. But so anyways, you might hear some background noise from time to time. Oh, well, we will work through it. Have not found the perfect microphone yet that can mute all other sounds other than just my voice. If you know of said microphone, hook me up. Usually I put the links of how to get a hold of me, email address, all that stuff in the description. in the episode show notes so feel free help a brother out so anyways enough of that uh today i want to dive into something that i'm finding is just kind of becoming more and more of a concern for just average joe christians again that's the whole point of of the pod here is to come alongside and help those of us that are just average everyday Christians trying to navigate the faith as best we can. We want to honor Jesus. We want to honor the Bible and be faithful to the gospel and all just in the regular aspects of our life. And I've just been hearing from more people just in conversation that there's this kind of thing that's going on in Christendom pretty much since You know, the COVID lockdowns and the race protest riots of 2020, things of that nature, it has really kind of sparked a political interest in pastors. As a lot of these things do, I can speak for myself as a Christian ministry leader. These things have become major issues. major issues in the culture, and they show up on our desks in a lot of different ways. So obviously, you know, ministry leaders, pastors, we will have the tendency to try to want to harness, use our influence in order to help bring about what we think is good, positive change within the culture. Oftentimes, selfishly, it's to benefit ourselves to get maybe some of the issues off our desks, which can happen. We're human just like anybody else. But it's kind of, I think, putting the average everyday person just sitting in the pews kind of in a quandary of sorts. And this is kind of, I'll just kind of describe it how it's been, just what I'm interpreting what's being expressed to me is When I was growing up, there was a clear, polite society rule. You don't, in social gatherings, you don't bring up religion or politics. And obviously, in a church setting, you're going to bring up religion. That's going to be expected. And so that's obviously, in a church, that's understood. And it's elected because you showed up to the church and obviously knowing what the church is there for, what it's there to do. So you are willingly electing, okay, I am not going to be offended by the religious aspect of my experience here because I'm choosing to show up here. Nobody forced me to go to this church. I am here. So, however, the political aspect of that, at least in my upbringing, as my parents took me to church and all this stuff, You know, it seemed to that that rule that you don't bring up politics that existed not just in social circles, but also in Christian evangelical circles as well as, you know, pastors would typically steer clear of those kinds of, I guess, cultural landmines, so to speak. And there was just kind of this. unwritten rule that we just don't bring that stuff up. And I'm not saying all evangelicals throughout the past three decades or so have been good at that. I'm not saying that. But it seemed to be more the exception than the norm that a pastor would engage in overt political activity campaigning of different issues, different perspectives. I know that's kind of been steadily on the rise since the formation of the religious right of, say, the late 70s, 1980s, things of that nature, as evangelicals have discovered that they are a voting bloc, that they are a voting bloc that both parties, Republican, Democrat, have to have to consider in their campaigning and things of that nature. So that was discovered and obviously, you know, different Christian leaders have, you know, made different decisions of how to use that influence as best for hopefully the kingdom of God, one, and for the good of people, two, and hopefully way at the bottom of that list, their political priors, you know. So anyways, we'll... We'll assume the best in all that, but I sense kind of the cultural realities have become so heated in recent years, and they have impacted our everyday lives in such a real, tangible way. These kind of political, cultural topics have really bubbled to the surface, and understandably so. However, What's kind of been, I guess, expressed to me is on the Pew side of this is Christians not quite comfortable. You know, since this old time rule of you don't bring up politics in these settings is kind of being discarded. It's left us just regular churchgoers with kind of what the... The decision, how should I feel about this? How should I engage in this? This is something new. I've, you know, I come to church, you know, for however long you've been going to church, and it's been a clear Christ, Bible, religious kind of focused moment in time where you're going to You're going to engage in the word of God. There's going to be some moral teachings about what God desires of us as people, some revelation about who Jesus is and what his death and sacrifice means and his resurrection means as we just came off Easter. You know, all that, all that we're, we're very, that we understand that that's baked in. But then when it's, and then obviously, you know, savvy, good pastors are, are, taking these biblical religious truths and they're showing how they can apply in modern cultural realities. That's been a thing. Good application within the sermon. That's always been a thing. I'm not saying that Christian pastors have always just been completely in the spiritual religious realm. There's been a long history of... centuries now pastors showing how the Word of God comes to bear on our everyday lives and I think what has changed though is is that application part of the sermon experience more and more there is there's becoming clear political type objectives within those applications and a clear kind of announcement of which is the God-preferred side on these political realities that we're facing. And so that's kind of what the genesis of diving deep in this episode, When Your Pastor Gets Political, is just to help Help you and me just kind of navigate through all this. We'll see how this goes. We're already 10 minutes in and we haven't gotten really into any material. So this could very easily turn into at least a two-parter. We'll see how far we get and what our time looks like. But anyways, there's a lot here. There really is a lot here to explore. digest, to unpack, in order to really treat this topic fair and well. Because, like I state, I do understand the tendency. I do. And we'll get into that. I do understand the tendency for political, I mean, not political, but faith leaders, Christian leaders, to use the influence that God has given them through their platform, their church platform, and that typically shows up. That can turn into a social media platform and all these platforms that leaders have now to use that influence to make cultural changes that they believe are in the best interest of the people and they believe stem from a mandate from God. And so I get all that. However, if the people are getting... seem not sure, a little uncomfortable or so, that's something we need to pay attention to. So I really would encourage any pastor to really pay attention to themselves, how they're engaging in this stuff and really being discerning and self-reflective in that regard. So me, myself, I've experienced this this kind of church political engagement in two different ways, and both kind of, I think, showcase how this can benefit or this can be harnessed by those on the left side of the political aisle and those who kind of harness this on the right side of the political aisle. I was myself sitting through a sermon at a church a few years ago where the sermon became how to really, an admonishment about how to be an anti-racist. And now, on the face, if this were 10 years ago, that sermon wouldn't be digested through the political lens really at all. So I understand that. I understand that racism, those kinds of things, yes, they have... They can have strong political implications. But, you know, the church has been speaking about race for a long time. So I understand that. However, in the moment that the sermon was preached and the language that was used, it forced me. I wouldn't say it forced me, but it definitely brought us as the pew sitters to the political junction of race. that moment this was preached in 2020 in the midst of us watching on the news cities really struggling with how do we deal with the death of George Floyd and the uprising that came through it and and the jargon and the rhetoric that that was being adopted by different sides of the political aisle so so it was the rhetoric that was chosen was was rhetoric that that came from one kind of one specific side of this race relations issue and would it become a very hot button topic issue in America and and so I saw that and I've seen other sermons and other instances where you know social justice itself has been you know become a a primary theme in Christian preaching and highlighting parts of the Bible that speaks to justice and things of that nature. And so we'll get into all that later, but I just say that as something that I've seen, that I've experienced. And clearly I was, as someone sitting in the pew or someone with my headphones and just being a passive participant, was because of the moment that we were sitting in, I was kind of sifting through that sermon now through a political lens and specifically really a kind of a motivated lens from a certain side of the political aisle. And a lot of these pastors weren't ashamed about which side they were advocating for. Some pastors are a little more clever than others or a little more subdued than others. really trying to overtly align themselves out with sides but then there's a lot of pastors you know especially in the era of trump that have kind of taken it as their moral imperative to to align themselves with one side or another so so i experienced it from the left side and then obviously i've experienced it on the right side as i have seen and experienced um you know Friends have shared with me sermons and links and pastors. I've watched several internet conversations with pastors about anti-COVID lockdowns. And I've listened to sermons where those kinds of things showed up in the sermon. Recently became aware of and started watching a few of his videos. Charlie Kirk has a... who is a conservative personality, political personality that is now fully engaged with his organization, Turning Point USA, has established a Turning Point Faith chapter within his political organization to where he comes alongside churches and really equips them how to engage their communities in ways what is clearly a conservative, Republican, political-motivated agenda based on whatever the issues are that Christians may feel more sympathetic about. This gentleman, Charlie Kirk, has been showing up to churches, and I've seen a couple too now of his events. I watched him on YouTube just kind of get a sense of how he was handling this And it's clearly partisan. It's clearly harnessing the church to be an advocate for partisan political personalities and garner votes for certain things. It's clear and it's done in the name of Jesus. And there's... You know, maybe that there's a lot just in what I learned listening to Charlie's approach. There's probably a whole nother episode that we may get to because he incites biblical passages that, you know, I just... We'll get into it a little bit, but I just think are kind of dangerous. Dangerous perspectives for us Christians to adopt. And I say dangerous even to myself as I... like I stated, I am a ministry leader as well. I have these tendencies just like anybody else. So I share all that to say that this isn't a purely right-wing phenomenon. It's not a purely left-wing phenomenon. It is a phenomenon that exists on both sides. And I do, I feel for kind of the average Joe who may feel stuck in the middle of this. And I'm kind of learning that that's a pretty substantial population of evangelicals that just not sure what to do about it. They don't know if there's anything to do with it. They don't know what's right or wrong in it. They just know they feel kind of caught in the middle and where they were used to going to church and having a certain experience and that experience is being altered. So that's really, I guess, the... The point of this episode and whatever episode, you know, part two comes out of this is just really minister to you. And you guys that may are just trying to get your head on straight with all this stuff going on. So here's kind of my overall statement about this type of political engagement at church is... My position is this type of engagement can be at best a distraction and at worst a false gospel. So there's kind of a spectrum that we find ourselves in when this type of political engagement happens, where at best, it's just kind of a temporary distraction of engagement. What I believe the Bible clearly presents as the primary mission of God in Christ for the church today. And I've gotten into that in past episodes, and we'll probably dive deeper into it in this episode. So at best, it just sits as this kind of like distraction where our pastors, our leaders kind of take our gaze off the gospel of Christ and his spiritual renewing work and in the lives of everybody who puts their faith in him and the growing of his spiritual kingdom and it kind of focuses our eyes on these earthly disputes these physical kingdom disputes that Jesus was so clear I just don't think it's one of the bigger themes of his earthly ministry that we see in the gospels that he constantly had to realign his disciples faith to the spiritual over the physical. He constantly had to redirect their eyes to the spiritual kingdom that he came to establish first while the disciples' hearts was continually geared towards, Jesus, what are you gonna do about this physical kingdom issue? And we don't have time to get into all those passages. We'll just look at one today That I think kind of summarizes that whole phenomenon. And we'll get into that here in a sec. So at best, it's a distraction. At worst, it's a false gospel. Anything physically on this earth can become a false gospel. Meaning myself or society, my community around me, can find salvation in anything other than Jesus Christ. And that's where sometimes this rhetoric can quickly take our hearts. It can take our hearts to the false gospel place. And I'm not saying Christian leaders are intentionally like, you know, they're like these demonic forces just kind of, man, I can't wait to trick my church. No, I think more often than not, It starts from a genuine place with good intentions, but it just doesn't take into account the deceptiveness of the human heart and how inclined we are to desire something other than Christ to help and fix our lives and to ultimately save our lives. A great false gospel that I run into, just as an example, as a youth pastor, leader you know i run a christian school and what happens young people is if i could only have a boyfriend if i could only have a girlfriend then my life will be complete then this loneliness will subside i will be a a desired individual that will make my life worth living you know really that's that's probably the biggest false gospel we face as youth leaders on school campuses and in church youth groups is you know, the false gospel of relationship with the opposite sex. It's huge. It's so huge at those insecure teenage years because it's such a symbol of acceptance. It's like, look, this person has accepted me in the most intimate, deep way. I must be worthwhile. And that's a false gospel. That is because the Bible is very clear. We find it. that fulfillment in christ in christ alone and once we find that in christ then we're able to in a healthy way engage in a future marriage of depth and intimacy you know so anyways i won't get into all that um but that's just an example of how something that could be that doesn't have to be a terrible thing can easily become a false gospel and so that's same with this political um It's kind of political engagement. And, you know, an example of that is just the Charlie Kirk thing that I came across. His whole tour is, gosh, what's it called? Something like Charlie Kirk saves America or that the word save is in it, salvation, you know. So eliciting the word saving, salvation, those kind of sentiments, that is, that just sets up the human heart for false gospel. Because again, it's looking for salvation in something other than Jesus. And in our political pursuits, it comes from fixing the government in the way that I prefer, in a way that I think works best. Then our nation will be saved. And I'm not saying there's not... better ways to engage the government. That's not my point. It's when it elevates to the place of salvation in my heart, that's where it's a false gospel, and that's where we as Christians have to put up our walls and our fences as high as possible. We want to guard ourselves from that, and it's our Christian leaders and pastors' job to guard us from that. So that's where this can be very tricky. This can be very, very concerning. So, So basically, there's a spectrum that I think we can experience political engagement from a slight temporary distraction all the way to a false gospel. So I've kind of got four questions that we're going to dive into to help us navigate this spectrum. Typically, we start out with one word of the day. For this conversation, we're going to have four words of the day. A word for each question, and I just tried to pick what I felt was the best summary passage of the point that I think the Bible would make for us in answering these questions. And definitely these passages in and of themselves aren't comprehensive, aren't complete or exhaustive. It's just the one that I felt, for time's sake, spoke the clearest to answering the question. Okay, so the four questions that we're going to dive into is... Why does this tendency exist, this kind of tendency for political engagement within the church? Why does this tendency tend to exist? Question number two is, what is the problem with it? Because I think a lot of us are sitting there like, this is different. I may feel uncomfortable, but what's wrong with it? Because you've got to have that question answered before you can know what if anything, there is to do about it. So first question, why the tendency exists? Second question is, what is the problem with it? Third question, how can I spot the error? So how can I spot when any human in any of my conversations or my pastor is kind of taking me potentially into error? And I do, this is a time where I just, even I'll just say I myself, I don't, Just explicitly, wholeheartedly trust my pastor to lead me through this. That's just kind of how pervasive this has become. I have to do some self-investigation in the word primarily and then really self-reflection after hearing teaching that goes towards the political, really taking the time to dive in for myself. Not because I think pastors are just, like I said, going off their rockers or anything, but this has become tricky. So yes, I think it's important for us to, for ourselves, in order to protect our own hearts, we have to know where the error exists. And first of all, apply it to ourselves, apply it to our own speech, our own engagement. and then understand what's being fed to me and being able to kind of, you know, the age-old saying, eat the meat, spit out the bones, so to speak. So we'll talk about how to spot the error. And then last question, what to do when you have found error. Okay, so you've kind of, you were a Berean, you know, as the Bible says, they took scriptures and they just analyzed it so that they could determine for themselves what is right and godly. So You're being a good brain, you know, you're really in your word and you're digesting the teaching, you know, according to the word. And you found, ooh, I think this has, this teaching that I just heard falls on the political engagement spectrum of distraction all the way to false gospel. What do you do? What do you do then? Okay, so we'll dive into that a little bit. Okay. Sounds fun. Hopefully this is helpful to y'all. So let's start rolling into these questions. We'll see how far we can get before we may have to pick this up next week, next time. But let's start. Why does this tendency exist? And I think this is important. This is really important. Helps us, first of all, have compassion, have understanding. And number two, not be surprised that this is going to keep coming up. Bottom line, this has been a thing at times. pretty much since Adam and Eve, for sure since the time of Christ and during the time of Christ, and obviously during the time of God's nation, Israel, in the Old Testament times where we learn about Israel's interactions with the world around it. So why does this tendency exist? I think Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 6, really gives us the summary experience to understand why this happens. So, Acts chapter 1, verse 6, it says, so this is word number one. So when they had come together, they asked him, that is Jesus, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Okay, so again, I think that summarizes the position of the disciples' heart pretty much from the moment Jesus called them to be his disciple till this moment. This was a battle in the hearts of the disciples up until the ascension, all the way through the resurrection. So Jesus, there's many times in the Gospels where he would have to confront this heart attitude of Jesus revealing himself as the Messiah, as the Son of God, as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. And the disciples were actually first in on this. Some of the first in and some of the most committed to Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. So they had actually put their lives on the line for this. And Unfortunately, the human side of them was craving the earthly King Jesus, who is definitely a thing. That is definitely a biblical thing. So it wasn't wrong of them to see Jesus in that light. The problem was the timing. The problem was always the timing. And with a gospel lens, it makes perfect sense. the timing that the Lord had set out. So in verse 7, Jesus answers them and says, It is not for you to know the time or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. Okay, so his answer, they're like, when are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Basically, when is the earthly King Jesus going to establish his rule and reign? And where the Old Testament clearly pointed, that would... benefit the nation of Israel. He would come out of the nation of Israel. He would be a Jewish king. In their kind of physical interpretation of the Old Testament, which was very predominant. And so Jesus puts it in, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons. So basically, what Jesus made clear through his death and resurrection and his earthly ministry was that The first season is a spiritual season. The first reign of King Jesus is a spiritual reign of King Jesus, where he has authority over all the spiritual places, where the devil actually becomes in submission to Christ. And Jesus has complete rule and reign over the spiritual realms, which is the most important realm. And that's the case the Bible always makes to us because We earthly creatures, we always prioritize the physical earthly over the spiritual. And so this has been a problem. And so it shows up, Jesus is getting ready to leave them. And so the apostles make one last ditch effort. Like you're going away, but you're going to, you know, this is their last opportunity to be like, because they still, there's a big piece of their heart was like, you're still going to kick the Romans out of power, right? Like, We understand you've got to ascend. You've got to go back to, you know, you've got to go be with your father. We get all that. But obviously the impact of your ascension is going to be an earthly restored kingdom of God. And Jesus' response is, again, it's not for you to know the times or seasons. So again, he reiterates that. my spiritual reign that i established through the resurrection that is enough for you that has to be enough because this because really the the strategy here is before he before he reestablishes the earthly kingdom of christ he wants to make sure that there's actually people that are available to be a part of the kingdom. You know, it's pretty smart. If you think about it, it's like Jesus doesn't want to return and reign over an empty kingdom. Because our problem with the kingdom of Christ is we're not worthy to be citizens in it, in our sin. And so he has to fix the spiritual problem of sin and its impacts. And that does have physical effects. I'm not saying it doesn't, but... His lordship is first spiritual to fix our spiritual divide between us and Christ so that when he comes back in his physical reign, where the Bible clearly tells that truth, there will actually be a kingdom full of people because of his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection and then on those of us uniting ourselves with Christ by faith through the repentance of sin and belief in the gospel. So it makes sense when you look at it through that gospel lens that Jesus first wants to make sure we're eligible to enjoy this physical kingdom. So it's basically like disciples, you really don't know what you're asking for. You're asking for a very small kingdom for very few people. And so that's now what the church is after. We are after the building of the kingdom of God spiritually so that this earth can be as full as humanly possible when he decides, when the Father says the time and season is for his earthly reign to begin. Okay? And so that's why verse 8 says the... the verse we all know, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Basically, you're going to, as a sign of my authority, my work and my power, you're going to receive my spirit to do a very specific thing, to be a witness, to be someone who goes around to all Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth to be a witness of power. I know this King Jesus. You need to know him too. Let me describe him for you. Let me tell you about him. Let me tell you about his worth work and what he has done for you. That's the season that we're in until God switches the season. So all this to say, that word to really say that, help us understand that There is a desire in every believer's heart for the physical reign and rule of Christ. So the fact that we have this tendency to want to fix the physical kingdom the way we believe God would have it. And again, I'm going to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. I think a lot of the times, whether you're on the left side or the right side politically in America, you've come to a conclusion that you believe is good and godly, that you believe is what God would desire. So even the social justice and the anti-racism, that's a biblical ideal. Justice was God's idea before it was yours and my idea. So that is founded in a good biblical understanding. And the same... on the right side, for the desire for free, uninterrupted worship of God in the way that God prescribes it, not to be constantly manipulated and controlled by government, anti-God government influences. That is going to be our experience in heaven, this free, unadulterated worship experience of Christ without any limitations, without any hesitation or proclamations of you have to do this or you can't do this or COVID lockdowns, things of that nature. That is a good, godly, biblical ideal. It's not that these ideas are in and of themselves wrong. It's just in the timing. It's just in the season that we're in. God is we're in the season where God has brought justice to us spiritually. He has brought his justice to us spiritually so we don't have to face the judge on judgment day with a guilty verdict. That's the justice that God wants us to be more engaged in. And he wants us on the worship, the freedom of worship and religion, he wants us to freely worship him In our hearts, first and foremost, primarily, he wants Christ to defeat the power of sin in our hearts that gets us to hold ourselves back from free worship of Christ. That's the season that we're in. That's the victory that Christ will bring us. So the desire isn't wrong. The desire to see Christ's physical rule and reign changed. isn't wrong it's actually in everyone and we just have different right now we just have different priorities within that and unfortunately those different priorities now have a very political experience to them and that's it's a bummer i wish that didn't happen but it did so we have to deal with it okay so that desire in your heart for the physical reign and rule of christ and how you are excited to experience it, whether freedom from injustice, whether freedom from government mandates and things of that nature to stifle your expression and your religion. Those desires are good. It should fuel our eager anticipation of Jesus's earthly return. We as Christians, we have to understand that I long for that day. I long for that day when all this injustice that I see around me will just be annihilated. I long for that day when we can just walk around and sing to Jesus like that viral airplane video that's going around right now of that Christian group that was singing worship songs on the airplane and everybody was having comments about it. When Jesus returns, you're going to People are going to have their guitars out singing all the time, and nobody's going to have a bad opinion about it. So we can't wait for that day. We await that day. That desire is good. It's just we have to recognize Jesus' words and the season that we are in right now in all of Christendom. We are in the season of the spiritual gospel. And that's why we read the book of Revelation and we take great comfort in the book of Revelation. We love it because it's reading the final battle script of what's going to take place. And we long for that day. Oh, Jesus, return. I cannot wait to see the dragon thrown into the lake of fire forever. I cannot wait to experience that. Thank you that I experienced that spiritually today. But I also long to see it physically because I'm sick of seeing the devil, the enemy reign supreme over so many of my friends and relatives and running rampant in my community. Oh, I long for that day that Jesus will return. But I understand that you're not back yet. So right now, our role is to keep our focus on the spiritual kingdom of God and making sure as many people as humanly possible are a part candidate for that final earthly kingdom because i want to see everybody in it all right i hope that makes sense so i hope that helps you understand why this tendency exists it'll it'll always exist and it will always um continue to pop up all right so that's question one i think we'll knock out uh one more question um we'll get and then we'll save the two questions for the other two questions for a part two on the episode But anyway, so just answered why this tendency exists. Acts 1, 6 helps us with that. What's the problem? Okay, sitting there and you think your pastor is getting political. You're being led kind of down a political. What's the problem? Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians 9. And this is word number two, super, super important word that Gosh, it's the kind of ESV caption for this whole chapter is Paul surrenders his rights. Man, that needs to speak to us right now because so much of the political jargon is focused on American citizens' rights and our right to this, our right to experience life free from injustice, our right to experience freedom, life free from this, our right, our God-given right to experience religion the way and fully express it the way we see fit. It's so focused on rights. And here we get confronted with 1 Corinthians where Paul advocates the surrendering of rights. And he tells us why. Verse 19, For though I am free from all I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. Right there, we're going to continue, but right there, eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes focused on what our current mission is in this gospel spiritual season that we exist in today. To win more, to make as many people humanly possible for the final physical reign of Christ. Paul was just uncompromising in that mission. And that's why he's such a hero in the faith. And we just get so much from his wisdom and leadership. So what did that mean for Paul to win more? Well, verse 20, to the Jews... I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. And when he says Jews, he's not talking about, he's not referring to the spiritual heritage of the Jewish nation. He's referring to the current political, cultural realities that Jews walk in. He's like, to the Jew, I become a Jew. Why? So that Jewish people can know the gospel of Jesus Christ. To those under the law, I become as one under the law because that was a cultural experience for Jewish people. They took the law of Moses extremely literally, extremely seriously. And so that was a whole cultural phenomenon that people were walking in. And so in order to... in order to have influence and in order to build relationships within that aspect of the communities he was ministering to, he became as one under the law, and in parentheses it says, though not being myself under the law, meaning that he didn't lose his, he didn't lose the gospel grace that saved him in the process, but he's talking about a cultural kind of physical experience that he's just like, I'm not gonna tell these people All the reasons. My ministry is not going to be telling these people why they're wrong for living under the law. I'm going to release my rights as a gospel believer, and I'm going to live as if they live. So if they wear their hair a certain way, I'll wear my hair a certain way. If they eat certain foods, I'll eat certain foods, knowing that I don't have to, but so that I can sit at the dinner table with these people, absolutely I will. that I might win those under the law. Verse 21, to those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. So this is him referring to Gentiles, to Greeks, that don't have any care for the Mosaic law. They just don't care about it. And so Paul now utilizes that aspect of his faith that I don't have to eat kosher if I don't want to. So in order to showcase the freedom of the law of Christ, he'll engage as if he's not under the law. That I might win those outside the law. 22. To the weak I became weak. That I might win the weak. I have become... And here's kind of his... Summary statement, I become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I might share with them in its blessing. That's the goal. He will relieve himself of whatever rights it takes so that when Jesus returns, he will be with millions and millions, billions of people. That's his goal. He wants to share. He doesn't want to just take the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and just hold them selfishly for himself. He wants as many to share in those as possible. So he's like, culturally, physically, when it comes to this cultural kingdom, these physical kingdoms, whatever. Whatever. As long as I'm not violating the gospel of Jesus Christ, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll eat what you're eating. I don't care. I'll eat what you're eating over there on this side of the aisle. I don't care. None of that matters. He's trying to be as gospel inclusive as possible. So all this passage, this passage I think really summarizes what's the problem when our pastors lead us in these kind of divisive approaches. And the first thing I want you to think about is be honest with yourselves. The times you like your pastor's political engagement is when you agree with the stance they're taking. Let's be honest. I remember I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine. We were having lunch and he was just like, I kind of like it when my pastor gets political. It's unprovoked for me. He was just kind of sharing about different teachings he'd been listening to and stuff. He's like, man, I kind of like it. I'm just like... Why do you like it? Well, because I agree. You know, so that's, be mindful of that. We love political speech when it's our preferred conclusion. The problem, and the problem is it's not just divisive. You know, so many people, it's divisive, it's divisive. Yes, that's like saying, you know, LeBron James is a basketball player. That's not the most important topic when you're thinking about LeBron. It's what order of the best of the best should you place LeBron James. That's worthy of sports conversations. That's what all the sports talk shows are talking about. They're not constantly reaffirming, is LeBron James a basketball player? They're constantly asking, is he better than Michael Jordan? And that's what I mean to say that the problem, well, it's divisive. Well, it's more than that. Yeah, obviously it divides, it can divide believers. But it limits, the bigger problem is it limits your church's potential, your ministry's potential to reach people who need Christ. And what I mean by that is it becomes an unnecessary obstacle. Let's say you're of a different political persuasion than what is being said. kind of purported from the pulpit. There's an instant obstacle now. This person is leading this church that I might want to be a part of down a earthly political path that I just don't agree with. I don't agree that that's necessarily the right way to go. I don't think that's the right way. You see, that's an unnecessary obstacle now for that person. Now, you're going to get amens from the people that already agree with you. And that's not great. Unfortunately, those are the amens that we pay more attention to. Because here's the issue. The gospel provides enough necessary obstacles. A faithful preaching the gospel, there is enough necessary obstacles for someone to... to get over in order to come to Christ. One, the clear acceptance and proclamation of your wretched, sinful state as a human being. That's obstacle enough. That's hard enough. And we rely on the Spirit's redemptive work in the hearts of people in order to get them over that obstacle. And that's the glory, grace of the gospel. But we don't want to put other obstacles on top of that. That one's hard enough to get people over. Now we're going to put some divisive political issue that's... And we know where that's going to go. People are going to be like, man, I can't sit under that. I can't engage in this week after week after week. It's just... I don't agree with it. I think it's the wrong way. And I think what Paul is articulating, what I just felt in my heart is the body of Christ is this place where there's this... diversity of opinions of how the government should operate and what its role should be in a pandemic, what its limitations and freedom should be in a pandemic. The body of Christ is a place where there's this diversity of thought and opinion on that. So out of the body of Christ comes the most helpful solutions because we've considered all the perspectives. And considering all the perspectives, we're like, hey, hey guys, why don't you all try this? This might speak to all the potential perspectives that you're going to face, President Trump, President Biden, as you try to lead this country through this pandemic. I really believe that in this passage, that's kind of the vision that kind of pours forth from the word to me about how the body of Christ can operate in difficult times. So, but... The biggest problem is why? Why would I want to put a stumbling block in front of someone who's seeking Christ just because they have kind of a different view and perspective? And it's getting bad. It is. In some of the videos and sermons and church engagement I've seen, I've seen churches that don't Don't hold fast to these certain political ideals. They're called coward churches. Literally, these are the words that are being thrown around. It's like, oh my goodness. We need to champion any person who's willing to build... a church, a ministry organization on the word of God and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like, yeah, divisive. It's obviously divisive, but you're just, you're limiting, you're limiting the redemptive potential of what I believe God established your ministry to do. It's this simple. And then we'll wrap it up with this. Would you rather have a ministry that has the, uh, the possibility of capturing 100% of your community's lives and hearts? Or would you rather have a ministry that's capable of capturing 50% of your community's hearts and lives? The answer's obvious. You would always go for the 100%. You would always go for the 100%. The polling on these political issues is pretty clear. I know it's very general, but half the country falls in the line of Republican versus Democrat. That's just where we're at as a nation right now. Why would I pick up the earthly talking points of the earthly political pundits of just half of the nation that I believe that God has called... the church of Christ to engage in all of it. Why would I put forward those unnecessary obstacles? And I really challenge you because I know the partisans that are listening, they're like, but they are necessary. You're going to hold how necessary and how biblical they are. And I really challenge you to really pray through, read through the scriptures and And just find in the life of Christ and then those like the life of Paul, how necessary they see and speak about the earthly kingdom. What priority do they place things of the earthly kingdom? Apart from just saying Jesus is going to come back and sort all that out. He's going to fix all that. That's pretty much it. But study the scriptures. The priority is always the redemptive spiritual work of Christ through the atoning work on the cross. That's always the focus, and that's what always the writers are trying to drive the listeners back to. Okay, so we're almost in an hour. I think that's good for now. Part one... of how to Christian well when your pastor gets political. Hope that's helpful. We got two more questions next time around. So hopefully you'll jump back in on that when we start talking about how to spot the error and what to do when we found error. So I think those would be helpful as well. Thank you guys for joining in yet again. You're such a blessing. If this is helpful, again, Rate, review, give five stars, share it. If you know people that are struggling with this or they're in a church that they're just like, ah, they're uncomfortable, share this link, share this episode, text it out, put it on your social media. Get the word out there because I don't think there's enough of this type of messaging. All right. So thank you all. Love you. And as always, until next time, Christian well, my friends. Have a great
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