The one true light
By Phil Ashey, American Anglican Council:
[…] The failure of discipleship among Christians has been a well-documented scandal by George Barna and others when surveying, comparing, and contrasting the lives of Christians and non-Christians. Dallas Willard called it, “The Great Omission,” the failure of the church to make disciples who actually reflect the image of God for “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:16 NIV). Instead, we mimic the ways of the world. With regards to politics, personalities, and power we say, “If only we could gain power in Washington, DC, then we could save our country and heal our land.” This is true of Christians right, left, and center. We pick our champions, fight for power, and perhaps even gain control only to discover that we, too, have been corrupted by our sin and our thirst for power.
Please understand that it is a good thing to have godly men and women serving in Washington, DC and in every seat of authority within our land. We ought to make every effort to elect such people because God is looking for leaders who will listen to him and proclaim and apply his truth to every situation as I point out in this week’s “One Big Idea” and in last week’s episode on biblical justice. This is especially true as we face a new administration that has indicated it will roll back many of the restrictions on abortion, reversing many of the gains made for the sanctity of life from the womb to end of life.
But this alone will not solve our problem as a nation. There are not terrible things in our culture because we vote the wrong way. There are terrible things in our culture because we love darkness rather than light: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19
This is the universal judgement, the “condemnation” (KJV), that we all stand under as human beings. There is enough blame to go around for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This realization both humbles us and gives us hope because we, the church, are stewards of the one true light who gives light to everyone – Jesus Christ, his life, his transforming and healing love, and his power to reach our ruined hearts. Politics will not save us or heal our land, but Jesus can and will if we are faithful to him.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
