July 12, 2021

 

Separate Politics, True Faith

 

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” – Matthew 12:25

 

We have turned our faith into a political debate. We divide amongst ourselves based on political ideology rather than love of Jesus. We’ve chosen to pick out parts of the Bible that “apply” to us and our beliefs and ignore the rest. Do we really believe that God will stand for our selfish ignorance?

 

We excuse politicians for bad behavior simply because we believe deep inside that their policies are good for our bank accounts. We ignore the hate-filled Facebook posts by people we like maybe, just maybe, because it’s what we want to say. We condemn the poor, blaming them for our own economic woes. We judge and we judge and we judge.

 

We do everything, it seems, but love others unconditionally. We do everything but lend a helping hand. We don’t want to get dirty. We don’t want to give up our time or our money or our churches for anything or anyone we aren’t comfortable with. We want to surround ourselves with those who look like us, speak like us, are economically comfortable like us and who believe like us.

 

We call out those who defend the rights of the underdog, calling them atheists and liberals and dreamers. We focus on one or two issues and call ourselves conservative Christians when the reality is that our lives are anything but a reflection of Jesus.

 

Who are you? Perhaps you’re the one who puts yourself on a pedestal and demands that your way is the only way. Perhaps you are the modern-day Pharisee demanding that those who love Jesus follow your rules and ignore everything else the Bible says is true.

 

Don’t mix true faith in Jesus with political views that ignore the needs of everyone. Faith and politics aren’t the same thing. Trying to weld the two together is a disaster we see unfolding before our eyes.

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