In the media, in political campaigns, in our society we keep hearing this labeling of Christians. Something to the effect of “Progressive Christians” and “Conservative Christians” and variants of the like. These labels are not from anything found in Scripture and are used so often to divide the church for the purpose of furthering agendas and winning political votes. In
Jesus Doesn’t Fit Your Image
Today people are pushing their own desires and traditions as things from God. We see wolves in sheep’s clothing who are trying to lead astray those who are weak in faith, trying to destroy the church from within. We see others who don’t care to read a word of the Bible, but instead wish to follow their own versions of Jesus. They want God to align with all their political party views, they want God to accept their love of money, love of sexual immorality, love of homosexuality, love of murdering innocent unborn children and so on. Lost in their pride, they try so desperately to fit Jesus into their own image. But it’s we who are supposed to live our lives in the image of Jesus Christ, not the other way around.
Jesus Doesn’t Belong To Any Political Party
Here in the United States we often see groups claiming or even the media in ways assigning Jesus to certain political parties. We love to make moral and Biblical issues into political ones, but God isn’t a spokesman for any political party. He’s told us in the Bible, His stance on all the moral issues that we face. As Christians we are to follow His commands, not the contradictory commands of this world. Christians should be involved in politics, should vote, should run for office, but above all must honor God in doing so. You need to open your Bible and study it carefully before promoting anything. There isn’t a perfect person in this world, so aligning ourselves politically requires us to focus on what’s important in a Biblical sense. So much of what political leaders stand for is of this world. The important stuff like standing against abortion, honoring the Biblical standard of marriage, fighting for religious freedom, and preventing the indoctrination of our children to sexually perverse lifestyles, these are all issues that we as Christians must focus on first and foremost. Certainly in the U.S. there seems to be a more clearer lean toward the conservative side, but that isn’t always the case. Our jobs as followers of Christ is to vote Biblically. Our party is “Christ Follower”, not Republican or Democrat.
The Bible Isn’t A Choose-Your-Own Adventure Book
Imagine if a home builder didn’t care to read the books required to learn all the rules, regulations and code standards. Or if they did read them, decided that they wouldn’t follow any of the stuff they didn’t like. Do you think the homes that they build would be complete and safe? I would imagine a lot of issues would occur and people would even die because of poorly built homes which didn’t implement all the proper safety requirements. Following Jesus is the same way, you can’t pick and choose what you like or don’t like. How can you honor and worship God if you don’t even really know Him or care to follow His rules? He gave us His word so that we could know all about Him and what He expects from us. The Bible is our instruction manual for life in Christ, our “why & how-to”, our “guide to holiness”. God gave it to us to prevent death, spiritual death. Aligning to the will of Jesus Christ is our purpose as Christians, we must stand tall for Jesus and honor Him with our choices and actions.
Don’t Please Yourself or Others, Please Jesus
We should refuse to accept any labeling of Christians in such a way that’s split down political views or any split for that matter. Biblically there is no such thing as a progressive or conservative Christian, you either follow Jesus with your life honoring His Word, doing your best to follow all His commands and relying on His grace to fill the inevitable gaps — or you don’t. You can’t pick and choose what you like and don’t like from the Bible, so that Jesus fits your lifestyle or political views. It is dangerous to follow a “Jesus” that you’ve made up due to pride and ignorance, it can be a sign of a false conversion, a heart not changed by God. Humble and educate yourself on God, study your Bible, it’s the only standard we have for our faith. Don’t receive into your heart anything that someone says, which contradicts God’s word. Live your life as God desires, following Him all your days, not following the paths of your favorite political party or any traditions of men. Above all, love God with all that you are and love others as yourself. Remember love doesn’t mean accepting and affirming all things. Love means standing for the Truth and that Truth is found in the Bible. Jesus said “If you love me, then you will follow my commandments” (