One week from today, general elections will start. Early voting is already underway. Americans will be casting their ballots based on opinions that matter most to them. Christians in America are no exception. “Every vote counts,” as they say.
The odds are high that you are a professing Christian. Meaning, you profess to be one who is “of Christ” or following Jesus Christ. It means on matters that Christ speaks, you speak the same. His opinion is your opinion—or it should be.
The Bible uses the concept of slavery to describe this paradigm. In biblical times, a slave had no rights. Though he may have had good living conditions and a well-intentioned master, he was never more than a tool in the hand of his owner as far as the law was concerned. His sole purpose was to do the bidding of his owner and nothing less. It was a slave’s responsibility to perform and produce as his master desired.
When Jesus said a slave cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), He was alluding to this idea. Christians are called slaves to God (1 Pet. 2:16; 1 Cor. 7:22-23). We are owned by Him who bought us with the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 6:20) and legally bound to do what He desires. He is our Master. His opinions are our opinions. A slave has no right to have his own.
Our Master is benevolent. He is good to us, giving us more than we need and deserve. He is patient, merciful, and loving toward us. In fact, the slavery we experience under His sovereign rule is described as freedom (Gal. 5:1; Jn. 8:36). Yet, while enjoying such abundance of goodness, we are still slaves to Him. What He says, we must do. What He thinks, we must think. We are to perform and produce to please Him.
For this reason, we must know the mind of Christ—what He likes, what He dislikes, what sort of things He would say, what He would not say. And, we must see those things as our own. He is our Master. His will is our will. And yes, His vote is our vote.
“How would Jesus vote?” That is the question.
Jesus was not a Republican or Democrat. God takes no political side. He is a standard of governing in and of Himself. There is nothing higher than Him, so He holds no allegiance outside of Himself. He is the standard of law, righteousness, and power (Ps. 18:30). Moreover, God has His own agenda—to glorify Himself.
Casting your vote has more to do with your allegiance to Christ than your allegiance to country. So when you vote, you are voting for God, not for yourself. Your vote belongs to God. Marking your ballot is a way to show your allegiance to God through country. But, in order to glorify your Master, you must vote the way He wants you to vote.
On matters of religious liberty, you must vote for the freedom of biblical worship. Any law that forbids the proclamation of God’s truth is against God’s command and must be voted against. The government is to uphold God’s rule, not silence God’s Word. Christians must not vote for electives that hush God’s Word in any way. This is the primary way God’s gospel is proclaimed.
On matters of abortion, you must vote for the lives of the innocent. Babies—even those in the womb—are image bearers of God (Gen. 1:27). It is morally wrong to kill the innocent (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 1:28-29). Jesus came to bring life in abundance and abortion is a reverse of that purpose. It kills. Christians must not vote for electives that authorize abortion. The gospel is a message of life meant to be preached to those who live.
On matters of marriage, you must vote for biblical manhood, womanhood, and marriage. This means that you must be for heterosexual, monogamous, lifelong marriage and against homosexual marriages, flippant divorce laws, and confusing gender lines. God made man and woman, and He designed marriage to be a gospel picture to the world (Eph. 5:31-32). The gospel is distorted when marriage is anything less than the way God designed it. Christians must vote for biblical marriage.
Must is a strong word.
Why must you vote this way? Because you call yourself a Christian. You refer to yourself as one bound by God’s will. You identify yourself as one whose actions are determined by the desires of God. You must vote this way because God desires to vote this way, and His desires are now your desires.
Before matters of welfare, education, borders, and taxes—though important issues—the Christian must vote on religious liberty, life, and biblical marriage. Why? Because these are matters of God’s kingdom. They are gospel matters. The loss of religious liberty is the loss of gospel proclamation. The loss of innocent life is the loss of gospel purpose. The loss of biblical marriage is the loss of the gospel picture.
Your vote is not your vote. It belongs to God.
Vote on His behalf, Christian.
A New Discipleship Resource
Creative Content for Christian Men
Instead of comments, I accept and encourage letters to the editor. If you want to write a letter to the editor, you can do so here.
