What If the Great Deception Is That Politics Makes Us Forget the Heart of Jesus?

What if one of the greatest deceptions facing the Church isn't getting Christians to deny Jesus?

What if it's getting Christians so consumed with everything happening around us that, while we're defending Jesus with our mouths, we slowly stop looking like Him with our lives?

Look around.

Politics is everywhere.

Turn on the television. Open Facebook. Scroll through YouTube. Walk into a conversation. Before long, somebody is telling you who you should fear, who you should be angry with, who is destroying the country, and whose fault everything is.

And Christians aren't immune to it.

But I think we need to ask ourselves a difficult question:

At what point does caring about what is happening in our country become being consumed by a kingdom that isn't ours?

Politics Isn't the Enemy

I'm not saying Christians shouldn't care about government.

I'm not saying we shouldn't vote.

I'm not saying we shouldn't speak about issues that affect our communities, our families, or our children.

And I'm certainly not saying truth doesn't matter.

But Jesus made something very clear when He stood before Pilate:

"My kingdom is not of this world." — John 18:36

Jesus was standing before a political authority who literally had power over His earthly life, yet His focus remained on a Kingdom greater than Rome.

That's something the Church cannot afford to forget.

We live in this world.

We participate in our communities.

We care about what happens around us.

But our allegiance to Jesus has to remain greater than our allegiance to anything else.

What If the Distraction Is Working?

Think about how clever deception can be.

The enemy doesn't necessarily need to convince Christians to stop talking about Jesus.

What if he can simply get us angry enough that nobody can see Jesus through us?

What if he can keep us constantly watching the news, constantly arguing online, constantly identifying enemies, constantly preparing for the next battle—while our prayer life disappears?

We know what's happening in Washington, but we don't know what's happening in our neighbor's life.

We know what somebody on television said yesterday, but we haven't opened our Bible today.

We can name everything wrong with the other side, but we haven't asked God to search our own heart.

We say we're fighting for righteousness while becoming bitter.

We say we're defending truth while speaking about people with hatred.

We say we're standing for Jesus while forgetting how Jesus told us to treat the people standing against us.

That's dangerous.

Jesus Gave Us a Very Difficult Command

Jesus said:

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." — Matthew 5:44

And He didn't stop there. He told His followers to pray for those who mistreated and persecuted them.

That's Christianity.

Not loving only people who vote like us.

Not praying only for leaders we support.

Not showing kindness only to people who agree with us.

Jesus specifically pointed toward the people we consider enemies.

That's where following Jesus gets difficult.

Because it's easy to love someone who agrees with you.

It's easy to show grace to someone on your side.

But Jesus calls us to something the world doesn't understand.

Love them anyway.

That doesn't mean agreeing with them.

Love doesn't require abandoning truth.

Grace doesn't require pretending evil is good.

Jesus could speak incredibly difficult truth while still loving the person standing in front of Him.

That's what we need to learn again.

When Did Our Neighbor Become Our Enemy?

This may be one of the saddest things happening around us.

We're being trained to see one another as categories.

Left.

Right.

Conservative.

Liberal.

Republican.

Democrat.

And once we have assigned someone a label, it's easy to stop seeing the person underneath it.

But the person you disagree with politically is still your neighbor.

The person with the sign in their yard that frustrates you is still someone Jesus told you to love.

The person posting something online that makes you angry is still a human being created in the image of God.

And if they don't know Christ, then perhaps they don't need another Christian screaming at them.

Maybe they need to encounter one who actually looks like Jesus.

We Can Fight Evil Without Becoming Like It

Paul gives the Church an incredible instruction in Romans 12.

Live peaceably with others as much as it depends upon you.

Don't repay evil with evil.

Don't become consumed by revenge.

And then he finishes with this:

"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." — Romans 12:21

Notice the warning.

There is a way to become so consumed with fighting evil that evil begins changing you.

You can hate hatred so much that you become hateful.

You can despise pride so much that you become prideful.

You can become so determined to expose deception that you begin assuming motives and spreading accusations.

You can become so convinced that you're fighting God's battle that you stop examining whether you're fighting it God's way.

Scripture doesn't merely tell us what to oppose.

It tells us what kind of people we should become while opposing it.

Maybe Revival Doesn't Begin at the Ballot Box

Government matters.

Elections have consequences.

Leadership matters.

But the hope of the Church has never ultimately rested in who occupies an earthly office.

Maybe revival begins somewhere much closer.

Maybe it begins when Christians turn off the noise long enough to hear God again.

When we open our Bibles.

When families pray together.

When we forgive people who hurt us.

When we serve our neighbors.

When we tell somebody about Jesus.

When we care for the hurting.

When we stop trying to win every argument and start asking whether our lives demonstrate Christ.

Because we can win a political argument and lose an opportunity to show somebody Jesus.

And what have we really won?

Don't Trade the Kingdom for Politics

Pay attention to what's happening.

Vote according to your convictions.

Stand for truth.

Speak when you believe you should speak.

But don't let politics take something from you that belongs to Jesus.

Don't give it your peace.

Don't give it your joy.

Don't give it your compassion.

Don't give it your ability to love your neighbor.

And especially don't let it convince you that hatred is righteous simply because it's aimed at the people you've been told are the enemy.

Because Jesus already told us what to do with our enemies:

Love them.

Pray for them.

Do good to them.

That's not weakness.

That's the radically different Kingdom Jesus called us into.

So perhaps the question isn't simply:

"What's happening to our country?"

Maybe Christians also need to ask:

"What's happening to my heart?"

Because if following our politics ever requires us to stop loving our enemies, praying for those who oppose us, showing mercy, walking humbly, or seeing another human being as someone Jesus died for, then we need to stop and ask ourselves:

Which kingdom has really captured my heart?

The world doesn't need the Church to become another political army.

The world needs to see Jesus.

Pastor Scott