Don’t Build Political Walls in God’s Church

What we are witnessing today, especially amongst Christians, is the building of walls against one another because of politics and government. We are allowing politics to divide the church. Any agenda of division is straight from hell. When you see a politician or political pundit on television or social media who continually puts forth a narrative that promotes division, you have to question the source. Satan seeks to divide. He is not above using politics to do it, either. That’s why it is more important to honor biblical truths than political ideologies. God will hold each of us accountable for how we participated in this game of life. One of the main things He asks of us is stay true to our own belief systems within the boundaries of His Word and sovereign will.

Everyone in the body of Christ may not feel the same about Democrats or Republicans, or this candidate as opposed to the other candidate, but those differences are not to get in the way of our fellowship together. It is not to get in the way of our service together in advancing God’s kingdom on earth. Over the past few years, it has become downright embarrassing to read some of the social media posts and comments filled to the full with vitriol, hatred, and hellishness. And these are posted by Christians to other Christians who happen to disagree with them politically. We have oftentimes become more pagan than the pagans when it comes to publicly voicing our opinions on politics. As followers of Jesus Christ, we ought to talk to each other respectfully, even if we disagree politically. We must recognize the fact that there are good and bad people and policies on both sides of the political divide.

Paul reminds us in this passage that we are not to disregard one another because to do so is an embarrassment to God. We have used our tongues on social media to say the most hideous and hateful things about other Christians just because they are headed in a different direction than us due to a different set of priorities. Some Christians are more “meat-oriented,” if we use the “meat/vegetable” illustration in Romans 14. Other Christians are more “vegetable oriented.” That’s just the way it is. Yet we are fighting as a body of Christ as if only meat is of God or only vegetables are of God.

It is more important to honor biblical truths than political ideologies.

What do you think the world must think when they see the hatred in the body of Christ as though one candidate came from heaven and the other candidate came from hell? We act sometimes like one political party is a direct line to God, while the other is Satan himself. I wonder what unbelievers must think about us especially when you can find some of God and some of the devil all the way down the line on both sides. No side is a direct representative from God. Yet we have devolved into a group of people who seem to use the vilest kind of communication or insulting style of memes to align ourselves publicly with politics. All the while, we are distancing ourselves from Jesus Christ and His principles of love.

It’s not wrong to disagree. It’s not wrong to vote differently than another believer. It is wrong, however, to be contemptuous in both. As verse 3 stated, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat.” To regard someone else with contempt because he or she disagrees with you is un-Christian. Kingdom-minded Democrats accept Republicans. Kingdom-minded Republicans accept Democrats. The reason why each accept the other is because God accepts both. Thus, when you attack another person in the family of God because they believe, think, act, or vote differently than you, you have attacked God. This is no small thing. The division of our nation down racial, political, class, and even conspiratorial lines is straight from Satan’s playbook.

A person’s mouth reflects his or her heart. If your mouth is spewing vitriol at those who disagree with your political affiliation, then neither your mouth nor your heart is aligned with God. If you have a cursing mouth, it is because you have a cursing heart. If you have an evil tongue, it is because you have an evil heart. The way you know how Christian you are is not by how high you wave your hand in church or how loud you sing a song. The way you will know is by what comes out of your mouth. You’ll know by what you post or like on social media. Scripture says, in my Tony Evans’s translation, “How dare any of us regard in contempt someone who disagrees with you?” They are free to do, say, or believe what they will based on their conscience before God. It is their conscience God looks at when examining them, not yours. And you must never seek to bully or force someone to violate a legitimately held conscience belief.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we ought to talk to each other respectfully, even if we disagree politically.

While we are all growing at different rates, the Bible is to be the source of our growth and the development of our conscience. If you disregard a direct command or precept of God that your conscience knows to be true, then that is sin. Yet within the biblical boundaries of God’s Word, God allows freedom.

Some people will vote the way they vote because of the experiences they have had. They’ve had negative, painful, or even unjust experiences, which have colored their view of life. Others are based on their perception of life, which has colored their priorities. Both are legitimate, but because some families were taught one way and other families were taught another way, every conscience is not the same. People often operate on their upbringing, which causes them to lean in a particular direction. We are not to cut someone down, or disregard them, simply because they do not think like we do. James 4:11 says,

Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

The book of Ephesians puts it like this:

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. (4:29)

If we were to simply follow this verse in how we speak to those who disagree with us politically, medically, or culturally—we would solve most, if not all, of our nation’s social ills. Christians need to come together and set the standard for how we are to function in our land. Christian Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians—all of us as believers need to reflect God’s standard of temperate discourse and respect in what we say and how we act.