Lest We Forget

2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.”

How often have you thought about this verse? I mean, seriously thought about the verse. One day you will stand before the Almighty One and give an account for what you have done in your body.

It has especially come to my attention during these times lately, where there seems that there is a great divide, especially in politics and religion where there should be none. We forget that our faith is tied to who we are, everything we do, and every decision we make. There is no way around it. To say in one respect you live this way and in another respect you live another way is schizophrenic at best and at worst it is living a very large lie.

Christianity seems to be the only religion in the world with the belief of separation of church and state. Every other religion ties everything to their faith, and we use to, but have lost it. We should be taking every thought captive and making sure every decision we make is lined up with Christ, which is found in the Word of God, because we are warned in Matthew 12:36, “I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.” You will give an account for what you say and do as a Christian. How will you rate?

The church should be at the forefront in leading cultural norm by the way we present ourselves to the world. Will they like it? Absolutely not, they will hate it, as we are told in the Scriptures. This is not our home, and we need to stop acting like it.

When you vote, do you look at each candidate’s life and see if it lines up with what a leader should look like? Or do you vote for change, because it sounds cool and really do not even know what change they are talking about? As you are forming your political opinions, do you read Scripture to make sure your ideals line up, or do your force your ideals upon Scripture; trying to rationalize your opinion by using the Bible out of context.

I am not trying to propagate whether Jesus would be a Democrat or Republican, as I don’t think that would matter to him, but what would matter is the heart of the people. Even those we put into office. Does their heart line up, and can we tell by their fruit?

Does the leader love life and protect it, or does he vote to enable the innocent to be killed without even having a voice? If so, then they are not loving another like they love themselves. This is a big difference then when others are attacking us and soldiers who enrolled go to protect us by choice. Would the leader keep pushing us into war without justification, then we should not vote for him/her, as that is not loving either. But, we need to understand in this sinful world there are times we have to protect those that are under our care, whether emotionally, physically or spiritually.

The Bible is not quiet about leadership roles, and how a person who is a believer should walk and talk. We should be holding that same distinction with those we vote into office. My personal belief is that a Christian should not even vote for a non-Christian, as they will never have the constraint of the Holy Spirit, and will not have the convictions that they should.

If the church was evangelizing and holding its members accountable, and those who are believers listened and walked and lived their lives by the Word of God then we would have a much different country in America. We could get rid of the welfare state, because people would tithe and the church could help much more in the social arena, but as it is, most churches today can barely pay their utilities. If every “Christian” gave just 3% of their income to the church, the church would have more money then they would know what to do with, and just think if we gave 10%. It would change the country.

It starts with you and me, that we start holding the church accountable, and we start holding those in office that claim to be Christian accountable, and voting through a Biblical Worldview then our country would become a much different place.

If someone looked at the people you voted for, how would that look? Do those leaders line up with Scripture or do they line up with worldly passions? Why do you vote for the people you vote for? Self-serving or God-serving? Why do you hold the political views you hold? Because they are going to give you more money, or because they are leading by the standards of Scripture?

I think if we used these standards there would be a lot of seats lost in both houses of government, and barely a handful would actually last. I don’t care which side of the aisle they are on if they are looking through the lens of Christ and then actually study and pray over each decision they make for the people.

This will not happen until we start to do this first with the leadership within our own churches.

1 Peter 4:17, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”