Whenever a new controversy erupts in the media, many Christians are quick to offer their opinions on social media. This usually leads to knock-down, drag-outs in a viper pit called “Facebook.” (The recent “NFL-take-a-knee” controversy is just one example. Next month it will be something else.)
Sometimes I’m asked by readers, “Frank, what’s your opinion on [the latest headline controversy]?”
My answer is always the same. Here it is …
Standing at the root of all political and social causes is the misplaced hope that we humans can fix the problems of the world. We are capable of creating an earthly Utopia by sitting at Caesar’s table and creating laws and policies that will solve the world’s problems.
This hope lives in the hearts of both the Progressive Left and the Conservative Right. Though they are seemingly poles apart, both the Left and the Right place their trust in a worldly mechanism to bring about world change. Each just picks a different cause for which to fight.
Yet all of it has little to do with the kingdom of God.
The gospel of the kingdom, when properly understood and proclaimed in power, doesn’t attempt to make the world a better place. It creates a better place that lives in the midst of a fallen world. That better place certainly affects the women and men of the earth, but it doesn’t do so by leveraging the political system or engaging in activist movements.
Don’t misunderstand. The kingdom is not relegated to the afterlife. It’s both present and practical. And it calls every mortal to repent and give their believing allegiance to Jesus Christ – this call goes out to people on the Left and the Right.
The political system belongs to the world system. And at the end of the day, it’s at variance with the kingdom of God.
At this point, someone may object saying, “So Frank, are you saying you’re not for clean water, good roads, strong bridges, functional schools, and the end of crime, injustice, abuse, racism, and poverty?”
Of course not. What I’m suggesting is that you can give your life to one these good “causes” and mistakenly confuse it with the kingdom. The kingdom of God is all about absolute allegiance to a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His call for a kingdom community which embodies and displays all of His values. You can fight for good causes all day without knowing Him or submitting to His lordship.
God’s way stands outside the norm. As was pointed out in Jesus Manifesto, the kingdom of God is subversive to the ways and means of both the Conservative Right and the Progressive Left. I’ll say more about this later …
Click here for all the articles in the Kingdom of God Series
Why Christian Leaders Don’t Work Together
Your teachings on the centrality, supremacy and preeminence of Christ have caused me to wipe everything from the chalkboard and help me deal with the exact things you point out in this message, also that the Kingdom is here but not yet has helped me immensely, the fact we can experience it now and be able to live in the better place it creates is just liberating and the best is yet to come, just WOW!
A resounding Amen, Frank! It is unfortunate that Christians allow themselves to be swayed by man and deceived when it comes to this issue of the Kingdom.
“The kingdom of God is all about absolute allegiance to a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His call for a kingdom community which embodies and displays all of His values. You can fight for good causes all day without knowing Him or submitting to His lordship.”
That’s about the size of it!
Thanks Frank for advocating this common pervasive issue. I am grieved by how frequent and how many ‘christians’ employ humanistic endeavors with passion – sometimes vitriolic in nature; yet all the while never yielding to The Holy Spirit or seeking God’s will/word, let alone honoring Him in our actions. Yet for all their attempts and effort, this society continues to decay while those who strive to to fix this world with their own understanding are ensnared by their own undoing Psalm 9:15.
Thank you for the blog.
It is true that the Kingdom is not relegated to “heaven” and as Christ was trying to get across to his disciples, and to us, is that his Kingdom extends to wherever He resides. Throughout history it seems that mankind has tried to explain His kingdom from an earthly representation of their understanding of what a kingdom was.
I’ve always found it interesting that even today we have a set rule of what the kingdom is according, as you say, from the left or right perspective. James and John had a misconception as well after spending some three years with Christ. His response, that is how the earthly kingdoms do things, in mine we serve.
There is a lot more that can be said, but I appreciate what you have to say and hopefully both sides will be able to “get it.”
In following some comments on Facebook by groups, you can see how there are these two sides warring with one another about how it’s supposed to be.
Very sad from my perspective.
Frank I love the objectivity of your post. It doesn’t say that we can’t have opinions of the current topic effecting our lives but just that we, as Jesus followers, place whatever cause we are passionate about in the proper context. I’ve seen too many Christians attacking their fellow believers about a political stance that he or she espouses to the detriment of all. Even reading some of these posts on social media is damaging the cause of Christ.
If we exert just a little objectivity into any of these discussions the Kingdom will rise and the love of Christ will shine into any disagreement we have with one another. The love of Christ and each other should be preeminent in everything we do.
How true it is that we confuse the two worlds, trying to merge them into one – Impossible as they are in total conflict with each other & have nothing in common. No man can serve two masters!
I totally agree with you! I’ve tried to convince my politically motivated Christian friends that “God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are Higher than our thoughts”, and that if we would only “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then, all these other things will be added to us”. Keep up the good work