Churches Should Focus On The Spiritual Spectrum, Not On The Societal Or Political
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.’ (Proverbs 16:9); ‘<Jesus said,> “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own.”’(John 7:17)
Often, churches find themselves in the secular crosshairs of how they are seen politically, how society sees them through the lenses of how they rate in terms of the spectrum of political thought and not necessarily on Biblical beliefs. Many in the Church expect conformity within the body in terms of political and societal leanings, and we should fall in line, in thought and appearance. Where should the Church align on the spectrum and why?
The fact of the matter is, the Truth of the Church should be Biblically-based and Christ-centered and not be concerned over its ‘social rating’. However, in today’s climate, basing a church in the Truth will place such a church, secularly speaking, to just right of center on the political spectrum; pro-life, traditional male-female roles and responsibilities, LGBTQ and transgenderism issues addressed as immoral and not proper, and many social justice issues found as being anti-Christian in nature. That stated, we should not always look at the church on the political spectrum but on the Spiritual spectrum; where does a church fall in respect to Biblical principles?
Not all secular issues need be Spiritual ones. Not every act should be political, and not every act should be deemed ‘spiritual’ (or anti-spiritual). Wearing or not wearing a virus-prevention mask in church, for example, does not equate to one’s measure of Faith, nor that all men should wear suits and women dresses in services. These are not questions of Spiritual dogma for the church to provide a definitive answer but one of allowing the Spiritual and moral free will of the individual. The church that dictates total uniformity in what should be, in place of an individual’s free will outside of Biblical principles, is crossing into the territory of being a cult.
What is needed from our pulpits is the Truth. It may sometimes touch on things political, but the message should always focus on Biblical Truth. Why something in society is antithetical to the Truth should be taught in Biblical fashion and not from personal preference. I am conservative in nature, but I try to also base these beliefs in the Truth of the Bible. Whether or not I am successful may be subject to debate, but know that many churches, including Murdock Baptist Church, are not politically-motivated but Spiritually-motivated. God is not biting his fingernails over any of this regardless, and neither am I. God is in control!
Free will is never mentioned in the Bible, yet we do have the ‘freedom of choice’ (unless one believes in ‘predestination’ or God has made all choices and decisions for each of us, which in my opinion defeats the purpose of the Great Commission, but that’s another discussion for another time). As Martin Luther once said, “Free will without God’s grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself toward good”, as in sin, even good decisions may be made out of self-serving means and not Godly ones.
Free will and the freedom to choose is predicated within two camps, secularism (the sinful nature of man) or Spiritualism (the sinless nature of God). We have the freedom to choose between the two, but if one has accepted the ways of God through the salvation and lordship of Jesus, it allows the Spirit to influence that choice to do God’s will. However, the Christian can go ‘off the rails’ and choose to sin so being ‘Saved’ does not end the battle between the secular self and the Spirit of God within us.
As Jesus said in John 7:17, we have to determine through Spiritual discernment whether a church, or an individual, is following Biblical doctrine or self-imposed dogma. Any church, any pastor, any teacher, should be looked at through the filter of the Spirit and not through the ‘spirit of self’. Does a church or individual base itself on Scripture? What does the discernment of the Spirit within you tell you? You may agree or disagree on a political stance a church has, but does that go toward or against Biblical stances? Do the actions of a church on a political stance go toward or against Biblical stances?
Jesus, in John 3, told Nicodemus, and Pharisee on the Jewish council, this; it is not up to the Christian to follow the secular path but the Spiritual path. A person is born physically into the secular world, but must be born again Spiritually to follow Him, and must only follow Him and His precepts. It was then up to Nicodemus to reconcile his secular nature with the Spiritual Truth (as we all must do).
To clarify, take the ongoing political theatre on abortion. A Biblical stance is that abortion is immoral and goes against God’s will, and thus a church should be against abortion. A proper action toward abortion would be to support pro-life organizations that promote pre- and post-natal care of infants and their mothers and fathers, and promote family values; a church should also provide a forgiving posture, one that lead to repentance and reconciliation with those who have had an abortion or who perform abortions, in a Spiritual manner.
An improper action toward abortion would be one that promotes violence toward an abortion provider or against those who have had abortions; firebombing a clinic, or screaming ‘baby killers’ at women going in or out of the clinic, is not something one would find justification for in Scripture. One can agree on the some of the stances churches take, but their actions in regard to their stances are not Spiritually proper and wrong.
What of those things that are ‘in-between’? Wear a suit to church, or blue jeans? Your viewpoint on masks or vaccines? Shave or grow out a beard? We can look at what Paul wrote in Romans 14, where he uses the example of food (something that’s obviously dear to my heart) to provide a lesson on free will. What some may consider unclean (sinful) is clean (not sinful) in another’s viewpoint. We turn to Scripture, and find no definitive answers on either viewpoint’s prohibition or promotion. We pray, and there is no discerning pull toward either side.
Paul in Romans 14:19 says, ‘Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.’ Not all that we disagree with is sinful, and we have to be careful not to judge another’s actions as such; we can agree to disagree, and move on. Conformity should be Spiritual, not physical, but be careful not to allow personal preference or political leanings to overrule Biblical doctrine.
