Recently, David Platt, fellow Gospel Coalition Council member, wrote a small book I have found greatly helpful, Before You Vote: Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask (Radical, 2020). I would urge you to read it before or after the election. For now, I want to share the questions with you and briefly elaborate on them in my own words. My goal as your pastor is to encourage us to submit all our thoughts and actions to the Lordship of Christ, including the way we approach a political election.
The church is God’s chosen vehicle for carrying out his mission on earth, not any political candidate, party, or nation. It is necessary for Christians to be involved in politics. Christians need to understand the issues, and understand the candidates. Many Christians should answer the call to be politicians. However, we will not bring in the kingdom of God through our political candidate or our political activism.
The law is supposed to do certain things like protect its people; pass laws that restrain evil; provide a safety net for those who are disenfranchised; and conduct war and protect against war. But politics cannot change hearts; it cannot put marriages back together; it cannot cause children to walk in the fear and admonition of the Lord and live beautiful lives; it doesn't encourage generosity.
The government doesn't do what only the gospel can do and only the church does. And yet, we can be susceptible to living as if the kingdom of God is dependent on political elections. This kind of attitude can lead to fear and anger.
Here are Platt’s seven questions, with a brief explanation following each one:
1. Does God call me to vote? As a Christian, do I have a responsibility to vote? This is not a question directly addressed in Scripture because most of the biblical characters did not live in anything approaching a democracy! While there is no specific command to vote, like every other activity in our lives, we must strive to do it for the glory of God.
As the Bible says, “Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all for the glory of God.” Sometimes Christians in the historical past have even refused to vote because they have believed to vote for either candidate would be to compromise their faith. In their view, it was not passivity but as Platt calls it “convictional inaction.” It is important to put our political involvement in the same order of importance the Bible gives it.
2. Who has my heart? Am I putting my trust in the outcome of this election or in a sovereign God? Are there clearly sinful motivations guiding my vote? Both Peter and Paul lived under the oppressive rule of the emperor Nero. Nero ruthlessly persecuted the Christian church, and eventually (if history is correct), killed both Peter and Paul. He burned Rome and blamed Christians for it. He sewed them up in animal skins and turned wild beasts on them. He lit them as human candles.
Even so, Paul said, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Peter added, “Honor the emperor,” but only “fear God” (1 Peter 2:17). While politics are a necessity of living in a broken world, they are not the primary way the Kingdom expands. There are good things politicians can do, but in gospel ministry, we are involved in that which alone will conquer the world, change lives, and bring people to salvation (Mt. 6:33; Mt. 24:14; Mk. 16:15).
3. What does my neighbor need? Am I voting purely according to my own interests or have I considered how a particular candidate or platform will affect people whose lives are different from mine? In imitation of Jesus’ example, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Ph. 2:4).
The Lord said we must especially be mindful of the marginalized, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Pr. 31:8-9). To stand up for the disadvantaged is to be on the Lord’s side, “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy” (Ps. 140:12).
4. What is the Christian position? Which issues are clearly defined in scripture and which ones are merely matters of conviction? We must take action as biblically-minded people to form our perspective biblically. We must gain information from all sides and then critique it by scripture. For example, if all of your information is coming from Fox, then start watching CNN as well. If all of it is from the National Review, then also read Huffington Post. Then, critically examine all sides by scripture and ask what Jesus requires someone to believe about that subject.
If you cannot make a scriptural argument for your perspective, then it is a matter of opinion. You may try to persuade others of its warrants, but you may not impose it or require it as a condition for a relationship (Ro. 14:2-23). Christians are free to disagree over matters of conscience, and we must be intentional about discerning which of our beliefs are opinions over which we may disagree and which ones are biblical convictions.
5. How do I weigh the issues? No political party or candidate perfectly exemplifies God’s Word, so how do I weigh the key issues that divide the candidates and cast (or withhold) my vote based on my convictions on those issues? We must also ask if we are giving the same weight to the various issues as scripture does. We must be willing to do the difficult heart-searching work of asking ourselves if one or two issues are holding disproportionate sway in our hearts.
Also, we must acknowledge nothing in this world will ever be ideal until the Lord returns so our trust must be in a sovereign God to rule and reign despite our leaders’ inadequacies, inconsistencies or evils:
Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry. (Ps. 140:3-7)
6. Am I eager to maintain unity in the church? As much as I may disagree with others on political issues, am I absolutely insistent on maintaining peace in the church despite those differences? Paul exhorts us, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Ro. 12:18). He also warns that if we give way to anger, the devil will take it as an opportunity to create division. The old versions said, the devil will gain a “foothold” (Ep. 4:27). We must not play into his hands but rather keep short accounts with each other and feverishly pursue reconciliation with one another.
This ties in with our previous observation that the church is God’s primary vehicle for accomplishing his mission. Let us not allow something that is not God’s primary vehicle (politics) to hinder that which is God’s primary vehicle (the church). Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we can be passionately involved in politics without causing dicord in the church. Let us pray and work toward that.
7. So how do I vote? Having asked God for wisdom (James 1:5) and answered the above questions as honestly as I am able, how will I vote? More importantly, how can I walk away from casting my ballot trusting in God’s goodness, sovereignty, and love and with a firm conviction to promote peace and unity in my local church? John Wesley’s exhortation to his disciples is apropos for today:
I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”
― John Wesley, Journal (October 6, 1774)
