What Jesus Said About Faith and Politics
Family gatherings can get interesting these days, especially once faith and politics end up in the same conversation. We’ve all been there; enjoying a family get-together and a relative brings up politics, you know their leanings, and your chest tightens while you decide whether to respond or let it go.
If it’s an election season, it can feel like a fight for the soul of the country. Staying anchored in Christ in the middle of that takes real effort. This is because political positions can quietly become our identity. They tell us who the good people are, who we can trust, and who’s a threat. Left unchecked, that pulls us away from who we were created to be.
Listen to the full message on the podcast at https://www.leadbiblically.com/podcast/ or watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ptIZEgQcMc
A Political Trap in the Temple
In Matthew 22, two groups who agree on nothing, the Pharisees and the Herodians, team up to get Jesus discredited or arrested. They ask Him about paying taxes to Rome.
Pay the tax and He looks like a Roman collaborator. Refuse and it’s treason. It’s a perfect trap.
Jesus doesn’t dodge their challenge. Instead, He asks for a coin.
“Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar’s. Then he said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:20 to 21)
Where Faith and Politics Actually Meet
That coin belonged to Caesar. But the people belonged to God.
This was a pointer back to Genesis 1:27 that says we were made in God’s image, so that’s who we belong to. That’s where faith and politics meet, at the question of belonging.
Paul picks up this thread when he’s writing to the Roman church living under a hostile emperor. Romans 13:1 stats that believers should be subject to governing authorities, because that authority ultimately comes from God.
For the Christian, spiritual identity comes before political loyalty.
What Faith and Politics Look Like This Week
Here are two principles to live by:
- Guard your heart when tensions rise. Before you respond to that comment or that post, ask yourself if you’re defending a conviction or defending a tribe.
- Act with honor when your side loses. Pray for the person who won. Pay what’s owed. Show up as a good citizen no matter who’s in office.
Those principles will keep you fully engaged with what matters. They’ll help you cling to your identity in Christ…and rest with whatever outcome in the next election.
An Identity No Election Can Touch
Sin will keep pulling us into these kinds of traps, letting something smaller than God run the show. Thankfully, Jesus went to the cross to conquer all of it, and He rose again so we could have a new identity that doesn’t depend on the news cycle.
If your hope has quietly been resting on a political position, you can put it back where it belongs today. With Jesus.
Join the Conversation. Answer This Question.
- Where has politics started to feel more like your identity than your convictions?
