Before we got into the Old Testament book of Judges on Sunday, I did something that wasn’t particularly controversial – I just gave a  presentation on ‘Christians and How They Should Vote’.  With the upcoming Australian Federal Election, like I said, nothing controversial at all!  But it was all about the Christian worldview of politics and public policy.  After Sunday I got several comments from people that they found the presentation helpful, and as far as I can tell, no one’s left church yet because of what I said!  There were 6 points that I covered.  Here’s a summary:

1. The Gospel is the Priority

If you look at Jesus’ life (check out Luke 4:38-44) we see that he was all about healing people. Using our own modern language, he wanted to make people’s ‘livings conditions better’.  But the more we understand Jesus’ actions, the more we realise his acts of compassion were like little ’snapshots’ of what life in God’s Kingdom will ultimately be like.  And we also discover that Jesus didn’t want to be distracted from proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom .  Even in the midst of his healing activity – he said he must go to other towns to proclaim the good news of the kingdom – because that is why he was sent.

When we think about government and the important issues of public policy, we need to keep Jesus’ priority as our priority.  We shouldn’t lose sight of what’s most important from the perspective of eternity – sharing the good news of Jesus, with the hope that people will be brought into relationship with God and become citizens of the His eternal Kingdom.

2. Understand The End

The Christian world-view is to look ahead and know that history is HISstory and He has an end where he is taking it all to.  The risen Lord Jesus will return and the promise is for a new heavens and a new earth in which there will be:

• absolute justice
• perfect environment,
• harmonious human relationships
• full healing.

The Christian worldview is to be realistic about what can be achieved now before this ultimate and good end comes. Christians people should reflect God’s character by desiring justice, a good enviornment, healing etc, but it’s through people coming into relationship with God (Point 1) – that they can have true confidence that they will experience these things.

3. Pray for Government Leaders

1 Timothy 2:1-4 is an important passage on this topic because it talks about praying for those in authority.  The context of this particular biblical instruction is that Gods people should even pray for leaders who are treating God’s people poorly – ie. at the time, all conquering Roman empire with their pagan gods were persecuting Jews and then Christians.  So it’s truly amazing that the clear teaching is that Christians should pray for the rulers of the day.

We should therefore even  pray for those leaders and political parties that we do not personally support.

And we should note that the instruction in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 to pray for leaders, is so that there would be peace in the land, so that the gospel would go out and people be saved.  So again we come back to the priority of the gospel – point 1!

4. They Are All ‘Christian’ Issues

Be careful of a false division between what are Christian issues and those that are not.  Christian issues get defined in all sorts of ways by different people.

It’s God’s world that he loves, therefore God will be concerned with issues like: aged care, asylum seekers, business tax, education, employment, environment, gambling, hospital funding, housing, international aid, interest rates, marriage legislation media, mental health care, military spending,  peace keeping, policing, pollution, population.

I can’t think of an issue that we shouldn’t strive to think ‘Christianly’ about.

5. We Live in A Fallen World

This world has problems.  It is a ‘fallen world’ because of humanity’s rebellion against God.  See Genesis 3.

And by virtue of us having problems in this fallen world– they are not easily solved.  There is complexity.  Therefore – there will be different opinions and approaches to how to best tackle these difficult and complex problems.  So there is place for ‘wisdom’ and it shouldn’t be surprising therefore that there will be Christians who will work within different political parties because they will have different approaches.  And also, it shouldn’t be surprising that Christians will support different political parties.

6. Vote for Love

Here’s my ‘How to Vote’ Card for you.  Vote for Love!

We are told in the bible that God is Love.  God is pure Love.  Out of love, God sent his son who died willing for our sin on the cross.  And in the bible, those who follow Jesus are told to express this sort of serving selfless love.  Jesus told those who follow him to ‘love your neighbour’ and to ‘love your enemies’.  It’s what Christians should be on about.

Not that public policy will ever be expressed in terms of ‘love’.  But here’s some examples of wanting ‘love’ in the area of government decision making:

• ‘Love the Vulnerable’ – the unborn, the indigenous, the poor, the elderly
• ‘International Love’ – foreign aid, military protection, asylum seekers.  Loving our neighbour – means not just loving those in our own patch.  But loving that ‘mob’ over the fence that are different to us.
• And what is becoming increasingly counter-cultural – we should affirm what is ‘true love’.  Christians should have something to say about affirming the biblical picture of marriage – between a man and woman.

Let’s vote for love!  This means not simply voting for ‘me’ – what will help line my own pockets, but vote in a way that will lead to the serving and ‘love’ of others.