Politics and the Believer (Part II)

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 22:35-40 (English Standard Version)

   A friend and I were discussing the culture of American Christian politics, and he provided a thoughtful observation:

"Been thinking about [the notion] "don't we have a Christian responsibility and duty to vote for our values?" From what Jesus said, it seems to me our "duty" is simple: Love God and Love people. And the only way to do that is to understand His love for us through Jesus and that his blood is enough for us when we fall short on that stuff.

So I think maybe my only real duty is to abide in His love. If I do that, that love flows out of me to Him and others. And at that point, when it comes to politics, results of elections won't matter - I will be too consumed with loving and praying for my enemies to really care where they stand on taxes.

All that's easier said than done, but imagine a world where that's how we lived..."

   My friend paraphrases Jesus in saying, "Love God and Love people."  I don't know why he capitalized Love. Maybe he didn't realize what he was doing.  But I think, whether intentionally or not, he nailed it.  In my mind, Loving is distinct from loving, just like God is distinct from god.  We are told that the greatest commandment is to Love God, I think, not to love God.  And the distinction is one of both passion and sincerity.  Much like the notion that "it takes God to love God"--meaning we have to have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God to even come to know and love God--we have to Love God with a passion and sincerity only He can provide, and this comes from walking with Him and really knowing Him.  The more we know God as a friend and lover, the more we love Him, and then we Love Him.

   This idea is expressed when Jesus tells the Jews in the temple in John 8 that their father is not God, but the devil.  They are shocked; surely if anyone loves God, it is them, because they work so hard to keep His law.  And I'm sure that they sincerely believe they love God.  But Jesus tells them why they don't love God: because they don't know God.  "You know neither me nor my Father," Jesus says in John 8:19.  "If you knew me, you would know my Father."  The problem for them is not that they don't love God, but that they don't know Him.  If they knew Him they would love Him, because this is how we Love God.

   Let me state that again so that we can understand our duty as Christians.  We Love God by knowing Him.  In order to really know Him, we have to have a relationship with Him.  We have to put our faith in Him.  We have to walk some of the uncomfortable roads down which a life with Him takes us.  We have to lean on Him when things are good and when things are bad.  We have to hear His voice and do what He says.  We have to be His friend.  We have to know Him like a wife knows a husband: intimately, deeply, without the prospect of separation.  When we know God like this, we Love him, and we can fulfill the greatest commandment: to Love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul.

   When Jesus is asked in Matthew what the greatest commandment is, he answers, but the funny thing is that he slips a second commandment in there.  This addition is uninvited--after all, the lawyer asks only about the greatest commandment, not the top two--and also, I think, unexpected.  The first commandment Jesus describes is sensible, and I'm sure the lawyer and the other religious leaders were appreciative of his response.  After all, this commandment is in Deuteronomy, so they would have been familiar with it and approving of it.  But Jesus quickly adds a second commandment, one that is, in his words, "like it."  The second is of course, "love your neighbor as yourself."

   How exactly is this second commandment "like" the first?  Well, in the most obvious way it is similar to the first because it is a commandment to love.  I would also submit that it is a commandment to know.  It's hard to love someone you don't know, and that includes, apparently, ourselves.  It's hard to love myself if I don't know myself.  It's also impossible to love my neighbor if I don't love myself.

   This is where politics and life as a believer separate, in this commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Politics demands a certain tunnel vision.  It requires a certain selfishness, too, because my political interests are about my own interests: economic, social, cultural.  Political life is self-centered and exclusive.  It is tribal.  Politics demands that we band together with those who are like us in order to pursue the civil accomplishments we deem most desirable.  Politics is not about compassion or love; it is above all about expediency.

   The other thing about politics is that it bills itself as the answer to our needs.  This is exactly why we get involved in politics, and is exactly what is attractive about the political life.  I think the reason we get so excited about politics is because it is something we can put our hands on.  Our flesh loves politics because we find ourselves in control.  We're calling the shots; we're determining the outcomes.  This is why man can be described as a "political animal," because it's in our nature to band together to create the outcomes we think best.  Politics is inherently attractive to our flesh, and this fact alone should give believers pause in their political pursuits.

   Faith is the opposite of politics, because faith is not a means to produce a world we desire.  Faith is about handing over our power, not consolidating it.  Faith is about submitting our control, not exerting it.  Faith and politics have inherent contradictions, and are in conflict.  The irony is that both pursuits are choices that we make of our own free will.  I think that the distinction is what is desired as an outcome.  In politics, we want power in our flesh.  With faith, we want power in the Spirit.

   This contradiction between politics and faith puts the believer in an awkward position when it comes to his political life.  I don't believe that the Bible prohibits political involvement.  I think any suggestion that God prohibits our involvement in politics is ludicrous and dangerous.  In all honesty I don't think God really cares.  What I know that God does care about is us, and knowing us.  He wants to be our closest friend.  He wants to walk with us everywhere we go, and He wants us to know him as deeply as we can.  That knowledge changes over time, and things in our lives will fall away as we pursue the Lord.  A lot of us may jettison politics as we grow closer to Him; some of us won't.  This will be between you and the Lord, but your politics aren't going to keep Him from loving you, know matter your ideological proclivity.  Whether or not your politics keep you from knowing Him more is, as I said, between you and the Lord.

   My opinion is that, at some point in your walk with the Lord, you're going to have to decide between going deeper with Him and hanging on to your political expectations.  And I think that this is the case because the choice is about control.  And also the choice is about faith; about what you are going to put your faith in.  It's hard to give a damn about politics when you don't have your faith in it, and it's impossible to go deeper with the Lord if you won't put all of your faith in Him.  It's also impossible to love the Lord with all of your heart, mind, and soul if you love your political expectations with some of your heart, mind, and/or soul.  God doesn't want some of our devotion, He wants all of it, but He isn't going to make us give it to Him.

   I expect some objection because what I appear to be saying is that it's an either/or situation with your devotion.  And, well, it is an either/or situation with your devotion.  With your time, or with your interest, or with your effort it is not necessarily an either/or situation.  You can be politically active and walk closely with the Lord.  You can do that, but you are an exceptional person if you can do that.  Being politically active, giving of yourself to your political life, will probably always require some piece of you that should in fact be given to God.  I just think that this is simply the fact of the matter, whether or not we want it to be.  I don't believe that there is, as one friend put it, a "holy balance" we can achieve between politics and God, except for this "holy balance": love the Lord with all of your heart, mind and soul.  To some it might seem lopsided, but let me tell you, that is a good balance.

   When it comes down to it, the only thing God requires of us is this: Love.  Love Him and Love others.  He doesn't have any other requirements.  God is not demanding that we change the world, or change this country.  He is not after the things that we're after.  He doesn't care if there is prayer in schools, or if the federal government funds abortions.  Those things are resounding gongs: hollow and loud.  What He is interested in is Love, because He is Love.  This is why the greatest commandment is not one of the rules of the law, as the lawyer probably expected.  What God really wants is our Love, not our duty.  Now that is an ideology I can rally around.