Political Participation is a Biblical Stewardship

Political Participation is a Biblical Stewardship

Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

 As dispensationalists and fundamentalists, we can dismiss all political and social participation in our nation and culture as a continuation of the social gospel of the early twentieth century. Not only is that a mistake, it is unbiblical. It is a violation of the direct commands of scripture both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Political and social engagement is NOT the gospel. People’s hearts and minds are not changed by politics. But political and social engagement do impact the environment in which we can freely spread the gospel, and that is a stewardship we must honor.

The command to pray.

Consider the Apostle Paul’s command to Timothy to pray for all governmental leaders. The purpose of that prayer was two-fold. One purpose is identified in verse four where he states that it is the Lord’s will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. In this context, it certainly seems like Paul saying that God wants to save all KINDs of people—including Kings, presidents, governors, senators, school board members, police officers, and many others. We should not exclude any group of people from our evangelistic prayer list.

The first reason he mentions is the request that our leaders would allow us to lead quiet and peaceable lives. The assumption is that we could practice our faith without persecution or molestation. The outworking of our faith includes many realms.

We must pray for freedom of worship and assembly. We are commanded to gather and worship and if such gatherings are condemned by the government we must do so even in disobedience to secular statute. We will do everything to gather in compliance to restrictions, but to abandon gathering altogether is disobedience.

We must pray for family freedom. We must raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Compulsory state interference in that child-rearing process would be a violation of the “quiet and peaceable life” that Paul longs says we should desire.

We must pray for freedom of religion, expression, and speech. The New Testament Church exists under the mandate of the Great Commission. We must preach and teach the gospel, even in the face of imprisonment or death. This has always been the understanding of the New Testament Church. It was this thinking that drove the preaching of Peter even though he was forbidden of the religious leaders of his day to preach. It is why John Bunyan was jailed in 1660 (for holding an illegal religious meeting and for preaching in it). It is why 20th-century believers risk their lives to run Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. It will be why the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will be killed during the Great Tribulation.

This freedom of speech includes the spread of the gospel, the reading of scripture, and the declaration and application of the whole council of God. A Finnish MP was arrested not to long ago for simply tweeting a Bible verse. We must pray for the freedom to declare sin to be sin.

We must pray for justice and the peace that comes through law and order. We cannot live quiet and peaceable lives while the world around us is in anarchy. So, we pray for justice. We pray for just laws that will punish unbelievers and believers alike when they steal, harm, murder, or in other ways do damage to one another. We pray for a legal system that is just for all. We pray for a law enforcement arm that is firm and effective, as well as just. No system of justice is effective unless it protects the lives of the vulnerable and innocent—the elderly, the unborn, children, and the most vulnerable in society. This is all an outworking of the nature of “quiet and peaceable lives.”

All of these factors influence the environment in which we can live out our faith and reach the world with the gospel.

The responsibility to participate.

We would be hypocrites to pray for something but not to act on our prayers when it is in our power to do so. For us to pray for the salvation of our neighbors while refusing to share the gospel with them is foolishness. For a King to pray for justice in his country while refusing to address injustice is wrong. So, it is with us.

The power is in our hands with the vote. In representative governments, we have a vote. That vote matters and we must use it as a matter of stewardship. Christians must vote Christian values. I was talking to a Christian political professional recently who declared “If Christians would all vote their Christian values in every election, we would never lose a national election.” That is sobering. We are where we are in this nation because of the negligence of professing believers.

“But what about when there is no good candidate?” It is a fair question. There is almost always one candidate that is better than the other. We are not required by God to elect believers or even spotless moral examples (although the integrity of a candidate does matter). Their job is not to be a pastor or a Sunday School teacher. The real question must be this–which candidate will best allow us to enjoy quiet and peaceable lives as we live out our faith in private and public? The answer is usually quite clear.

The power is in our hands to work. It is not the role of the church to become a political or social action organization, but churches must disciple their members to fulfill their salt and light responsibilities as responsible citizens. There are so many ways this can be done. Christians can work for candidates who will work to protect the values mentioned above. Christians can get involved in election processes by helping with voter registration drives or volunteering as poll watchers (election integrity is a way of avoiding anarchy and it allows us to live quiet and peaceable lives). In monarchies, no amount of volunteer effort will impact the selection of the next King, but in our context, our efforts matter. Every believer should seek the will of the Lord regarding how they should participate.

Some might believe they are called by God to serve–as politicians, police officers, in the military, or in other roles as part of their calling of God to put feet to the “quiet and peaceable lives” prayer.

I have not done as well as I should in leading my congregation in this area. I intend to do better. I do fear becoming unbalanced or creating an environment in which a lost person feels they must adopt a particular political position to be saved.  But these fears do not excuse disobedience in fulfilling my stewardship.  Failure will inevitably create an environment where sharing the gospel with those same people could become very difficult and personally costly.

Pray.  Vote.  Work.

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