Politics is like marrying and crying and laughing and buying. We should do it, but only as though not doing it – John Piper.
The Christian response to the recent elections has been somewhat troubling to me. On one side, there are the despondent ones. These act as though the Kingdom of God is almost subservient to the government and seem to believe that God is finished with America since the government is in the control of the “liberals.” On the other hand there are those that are engaging in a bitter spirit of political contention. They tend to appear to be more passionate about conservative talk show hosts than Christ, and are more energized by the liberal versus conservative debate than they are the eternal elements of the kingdom. They seem to have forgotten that God is not a Republican, nor a Democrat, and that no system of man, moral or not, is a substitute for the coming kingdom and the coming King.
Please do not understand. I know the moral policies that the government embraces are significant and have significant consequences. I believe in passionate intercession for the nation and understanding the criticality of the hour the western nations are in. Yes, we must vote and maintain a voice for righteousness. By all means let us cry out that God might have mercy and overturn unjust laws and give us righteous leaders. However, let us always keep this in eternal perspective and realize just whose kingdom we truly are citizens of. I believe you will find John Piper’s post election comments to be a refreshing exhortation that is valuable in mainting the proper perspective.
Read on here for the rest of what he had to say:
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14639
I have had some tell me that when they click the link, they cannot read the entire article. Apparently the article is available if you are referred by Google, but not by other sites. Here is how to read the article:
- Go to Google. Enter the following as your search: “Marry. Cry. Rejoice. Buy. john piper”
- The article will be the first search result. Click on it and World magazine will display the entire article. Yes, I know this is bizarre, but it works.
John Piper also wrote essentially the same thing before the election and you can read it at the Desiring God block by clicking on this link.