by Elder Mike Chon

Since the elections are coming up I thought I would write about the type of perspective believers should have regarding politics and the government. There is a saying that says “if you don’t want conflict, don’t talk about politics or religion.” Well, I’m going to talk about both. There was a time in the history of the United States, when most Americans would have acknowledged that marriage is between a man and a woman, where killing fetuses were wrong, when alternative lifestyles were frowned upon and premarital sex was taboo. Currently these same issues are either allowed by law or are accepted by our culture as the norm. What should our response be to a decline and even a rejection of morality and absolute truth in our society and culture? Unfortunately, many believers have invested time and money to form organizations to counteract this decline in our country using methods that are not found in Scripture, whether it is protesting with signs, forming barriers, yelling and screaming about the injustice, or even worse, using violence to get their message across. If anything, these groups have caused believers to become angry and even antagonistic toward those very people that we are called to love and share the gospel with.

So how are believers to respond to this decline in our society? Are we to remain silent? We have to remember that our battle is a spiritual battle and not a battle against our government to become more “Christian”. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” We are in a spiritual battle against those ideologies and worldviews that are against our God, and the weapon that we use is the Word of God. I am not saying that we ignore what is happening around us. We should vote for things that are honorable and be supportive of those things that are good. We should grieve over the decline of our country in its morality and beliefs. We should stand up and speak up when God is being ridiculed or misrepresented and give a defense for the veracity of God’s Word. At the same we need to realize that the goal is not for our country to become more “Christian-like” but instead it is to share the gospel. We cannot get so caught up trying to change the government and forget or lose the time and energy that should be used in saving souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we live in a world that is constantly changing for the worse, believers can’t be using all their time and energy reacting and trying to change laws or advocating for social causes. We must keep our focus on the mission of the church to share the gospel and make disciples of Christ through the faithful preaching of God’s Word and godly living. If we begin to devote time and energy to anything else it will weaken the mission of the church. Now there is nothing wrong getting involved in politics or social reform but you must ask yourself: are we in the world to conform it to some moral standard, or we are here to evangelize the lost so save people from the eternal condemnation, one person at a time, to God’ glory alone?