Religion and Politics: We must talk about them! Kelly Durant Nov. 2016
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
2. Why is it that amongst families and friends there is the old adage that they have told you, that no one should ever talk about religion or politics? I think repeating this phrase is part of what our problem is today in society; too many of us limit our sharing of knowledge, wisdom, and blessings to others because we don’t want to have to deal with all the ignorance, anger, and commotion surrounding these two extremely important subject matters! To withhold God’s view is to allow ignorance to prosper.
Here is a conclusive truth I deduct: if you are concerned about politics and who governs, it means you are concerned with this life and all that influences you, your children, and your community for generations. And if you are passionate about religion, it means you are concerned about the future and where the soul of a person will go for eternity. The Christian should be concerned with both, but keen wisdom is essential concerning what you say, the tone in which you say it, and to whom you say it.
So was Jesus political? I think some people think that He was while others may think not, but we should inform ourselves better from His teachings on what was, is, and is to come regarding politics and religion with the intent of obeying God’s will no matter who governs.
3. What we know from John 18:36 is that Jesus holds rule over a kingdom that is not of this world, it is in that world where Jesus has total political power forever and ever. The reality is Jesus could exercise total power over this world if He wanted, not just a partial power for controlling kings or storms, healing the sick or feeding the multitudes, but He chooses not to use this omniscient power. Why? Because He is allowing man throughout the ages to learn the lesson of the consequences of not exalting Him to rule in authority them and over all things above and below. And since many of us as prideful humans (the people of the world) keep rejecting Him, everyone then suffers under the rule of horrible despots.
Men and women throughout history and of all cultures due to pride and greed have always had the same universal Satanic tendency to place Kings, Caesars, Sultans, dictators and Presidents to rule over them and 95% of the time we learn about the disastrous consequences of their rule with deeds of betrayal and murders, war, and human exploitation. We can conclude that man governing man never functions with authentic justice, righteousness, mercy, and compassion. If any one of us exalts or fears any person above God, one who is in a position of power, political or religious, then this person is making a big mistake because only Jesus is to be exalted above all! Jesus is to be worshipped and obeyed taking into account that all others are not to be trusted as they will use and will abuse you and maybe even kill you! Man was never created to be respected as a god because He is carnal and unworthy!
The less a person worships God the more they will worship man but…
Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
4. In John 18:16 I find it fascinating that Jesus had and has the power to call on servants not from this world, to fight, but He chose not to as He respected His mission to be the ultimate sacrifice for the redemption of sins. For this very reason Jesus is due honor and glory forever and ever! What mercy! But his wrath and judgment will come soon at the right time.
Jesus has always eternally had authority in the Kingdom of God, or in heaven, and considering that this Kingdom theocracy exists in some parallel universe, we must fear and respect Jesus for his supernatural power. He came into this world supernaturally inhabiting in a flesh body as ours, and this feat is far beyond our technology. We as weak humans are so limited we cannot penetrate into His world or even transport to the adjacent Andromeda galaxy in our current disastrous unworthy condition both physically and spiritually degenerate. Mankind is corrupted and only the redeemed are worthy of ruling with the King of kings when His world opens up to receive the souls who reverence Him as Lord over all.
Here is the good news, when our spirits leave our bodies, Jesus promised His faithful that we would be able to unite with Him in that heavenly kingdom in a resurrected body, and that we would live forever there with Him sharing in the beauty, love, and perfection of a Kingdom with justice and righteousness. This being the case, our investment must be for there and then and not for the here and now in this temporary decaying world of competing corrupt political figures.
5. So I invite you to conclude with me that our current politics are somewhat irrelevant compared to the scale of eternity where our souls will reside forever. We are but a hair thin slice in the timescale of eternity. For the true Christian, as in the case of Jesus, we proclaim that our kingdom is not of this world and God expects us to not lay up our treasures or power here but rather in heaven. If Jesus had wanted to take over the political power in the world in the time of the Sanhedrin and the Caesars He could have done it but He did not because they still would not have learned to honor God. Jesus is all about real and enduring spiritual power, not temporary authority over prideful unworthy rebellious people.
However, from the entire Old Testament we conclude that God is very much interested in the political powers that be and that He is involved in what happens to His people. If it had not been for God’s supernatural intervention aiding Moses, Ester, and Daniel, (along with countless others) God’s people would have been totally annulated by the political powers of their day. While you and I live in this current moment being just a chapter of history, we must work within it to influence it to be as Godly as possible.
God throughout history reveals He is involved in the world powers and politics in relation to how it affects His people. And, as revealed in the Bible, God raises up His servants in crisis times to be influencers inside the governments for the protection of His people.
6. Conclusively God wants His righteous servants involved in taking advantage of any of the current political situations to spread His gospel of the good news. Moses was raised up by God as a spiritual and political opponent to free God’s people from their slavery. Ester defied the king’s orders and interceded for God’s people and they were spared. Daniel was brave enough to interpret the king’s dreams and then he was placed in power to govern. He later was persecuted and thrown in the Lion’s den but God protected him then as well. God raises up His man or woman of the hour wants His people in power for the protection and good of all.
Here is another example but in the New Testament, Do you recall how Paul wanted to go spread the gospel in Rome? And Rome was the political center of the world! Romans 1:15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. He had the right vision to attack the very center of Satan’s kingdom knowing that he was called to preach to everyone.
Paul also would usually reach out to the main religious and political leaders of the cities in his travels so they would hear the gospel first. This was wise to prevent them from being upset when the people would inform these leaders that some new guy in town was preaching about a Jesus they had never heard and His coming Kingdom of God.
7. Political people are easy to dislike as they are the ones who want to intimidate you and hate on you for not being subjugated to their low level of man or woman worship. It is like this, those who do not have God first in their lives, have some person usually a political figure first, and this person usually demands that you abandon your god worship so they can be your god so this implies using humanism, communism, or atheism as a base.
Did Jesus honor rulers? Luke 20: 23 But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test Me? 24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
25 And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Amazing reply, right?
It seems clear here Jesus recognizes the fact that we will have to deal with the local politically correct authorities and their demands. To deny Caesar his honor would have meant a death sentence! We will always have to deal with those who feel they have to defend their despotic “Caesar” or some corrupted stance they think is important. But what we learn from Jesus is we will always need to bring others with this type of ignorant focus back into the spiritually correct perspective. This example of Jesus is that God must have His deserved honored place despite whoever governs.
8. When we look back in history we see that it always seems to repeat itself. We observe the process of a freed people of God who earning their freedom from political oppressors by their dedication and religious devotion stood up with men and women of God to fight evil. Then over time in their prosperity and spiritual degeneration they fall again into being oppressed by the political powers that be.
Jesus, being spiritual, could still not avoid the political challenges of his day, the challenges of those in power wanting Him to recognize them as powerful. These powers have and had their place to prevent anarchy but Jesus established that he is above all of them. All powers are always temporary and limited to this material plane within political and geographical borders, but Jesus power transcends all time, and all worlds!
All of us could live in a beautiful world, much better than what any man or woman has to offer but due to corruption this dream of a peaceful loving world will never happen! A perfect world will only happen when Jesus returns to set us free from the world’s systems and set up His Kingdom for ever and ever over our degenerate rulers! In the meantime, God’s children must fight, and if it needs to be with spiritual power or with political influence we must be willing to do anything for God’s glory to alleviate suffering as Jesus and all servants of God did.
“While women weep, as they do now,
I'll fight
While little children go hungry, as they do now,
I'll fight
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now,
I'll fight
While there is a drunkard left,
While there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
By William Booth
