Political disagreement seems more like war—name calling, vilifying your enemy, and destroying the other side. How can we, as Jesus followers disagree better and more like Jesus?

SERIES INTRO

We are 50 days away from the presidential election. We’ve had a presidential campaign unlike any in modern history. We just had the first, and possibly only, debate between the two candidates. So, a series on “Faith and Politics” is quite timely.

This series isn’t about who you should vote for or what issues you should care about. We categorically reject the idea that a Christian should only vote one way.

Instead, this series will attempt to challenge four common political narratives in the American evangelical church. These are:

• What to do when you disagree

• How to advance Christian causes

• How to align yourself with political parties

• What it looks like to love your country

Portions of American Christianity have specific answers to these questions, and many aren’t biblical. So, I’m hoping to provide different answers, ones that might better reflect Jesus and build more of his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

SERMON INTRO

Today, we talk about political division. Captain Obvious is here to tell you that our country feels more divided than it’s ever been in our lifetimes. And the data seems to support this.

Data from the Pew Research Center in 2014 shows a widening gap between the median Democrat and the median Republican. In other words, the ideological gap between parties is getting bigger. This pattern has been confirmed in their research in 2017 and 2022.

At the same time, hatred of “the other side” has increased. The same research from 2014 looked at those who viewed the other political party as a “threat to the nation’s well-being.” Both parties show an increase in this oppositional hatred, especially in the last 20 years.

And unfortunately, Christians have not been immune to this political division. Another research from Pew in 2014, the Religious Landscape Survey, noted that “40% of Christians leaned Democratic while 44% leaned Republican.”

However, in the 2020 election, almost 80% of white evangelicals voted Republican. However, among Catholics and Mainline Denominations, the vote was split. And among non-white evangelicals, almost 60% voted Democrat. Ask almost any pastor, and they’ll say that political divisions and anger have risen sharply in their congregations over the last ten years.

And I’m guessing you’ve seen this too. You might have some relatives, Christian or otherwise, whose political views have gotten more extreme in the past decade. And you don't know what to do with them at family parties or Thanksgiving. Should you engage in debate, tolerate their rants, or avoid them altogether?

God – Love Unconditionally

We already know what it looks like to disagree politically. But what about to love unconditionally? And what, exactly, is unconditional love?

So first, some basic contrasts:

• Conditional love affirms people who agree with you.

• Unconditional love affirms people who disagree with you.

• Conditional love has rules and expectations.

• Unconditional love loves regardless of words, beliefs, and political stance.

• Conditional love is exclusive by name. It favors certain groups or ideologies.

• Unconditional love is inclusive, where everyone is valued despite differences.

Here’s the interesting thing about unconditional love—you know when you receive it. It’s a sense of peace, love, and acceptance wrapped in a hug with puppy kisses on top.

If love is this good, why is it so rare in politics and hatred so common?

• “The stakes are too high.”

• “It’s the only way to get things done.”

• “You’ll get rejected by your base.”

• “The other side is evil. They deserve it.”

Love God. Love others. Those are non-negotiable for the Christian. You can choose whether to follow God, but you can’t choose how you follow God. You must love. Political hatred, mockery, name-calling, vilifying, sexism, and racism have no place and no justification for a Christian.

As believers, we must represent a different voice. We must love unconditionally. But how? It’s so hard! That’s were John 17 comes in.

Take a look at verses 25-26.

25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

These two little verses contain three secrets about how to have more unconditional love in your heart.

First, you must know that God sent Jesus. He can’t just be a good moral teacher. You have to believe him to be the sent Messiah Son of God.

Second, you must know God personally. Not believe in him or call yourself a Christian. You have to know Jesus and, therefore, know God.

Third, Jesus has to be in you. This is way more than theological agreement, making a commitment at HLUB, or just getting baptized. This is Jesus deep and integrated into your whole self.

With those three things, the love that God has for Jesus can live in you.

Do you find it hard to love other people? Of course, we’re terrible at loving others. God is great at it. Jesus is great at it. We are terrible at it. We’re selfish, wounded, prideful people. We want people to love us, not the other way around.

But God loves generously. He is abounding in love and faithfulness.

Jesus loves beautifully. He is the embodiment of mercy and compassion.

And that love can be in you. Trust me, if the love of Jesus isn’t in you, it ain’t coming out of you!

God - Pray For Unity

But we’re not done yet. Disagree politically. Love unconditionally. [One more…] Pray for unity.

Unity is critical for the body of Christ, especially when so many churches are divided over politics. It is so important that, in Jesus’ prayer you heard earlier, he mentions it four times in three verses.

Let me read the first part of the passage again. This is Jesus speaking.

20 “My prayer is not for [the disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be ONE, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be ONE as we are ONE— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNITY.

This was Jesus praying for us. Did you catch it? He prayed for us, as the church, the body of Christ, to be one, just as he and the Father are one. He prays that we are brought to complete unity.

That means that by ourselves, driven by our own politics, driven by our own self-interest, we will be divided. But only in Christ, belonging to him, finding our identity in him, only then can we be united—united around a common set of kingdom values, not around a political platform. That is not what unites the Church, and it never will be. We are united around the cross of Christ.

Christian Republicans out there—can you be united with Christian Democrats? Or can you only see them as the enemy—the radical left, liberal, anti-God, Marxists?

Christian Democrats out there—can you be united with Christian Republicans? Or can you only see them as the enemy—the corrupt elites, racist, misogynistic xenophobes?

Can you put your Jesus filter ahead of your political filter and see others as beloved children of God. You have to because the stakes are HUGE!

Here’s the next thing Jesus says in this passage:

Then (only when Christians are united, only when they are one)… Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The reason Jesus prayed for oneness doesn’t really have anything to do with us. He prayed for oneness because of what he wanted to do through us.

Think about that for a second. If you are a Christian, the witness of God on earth is directly connected to your ability to be in relational unity with brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how different they are from you.

• So, when you judge, criticize, or mock other Christians, you are telling the world that God doesn’t love them.

• When you argue online or share mocking political memes, you tell the world that Jesus was only human.

• When you use your words to tear someone down instead of lifting them up, you damage the kingdom of God and undermine the mission of RiverLife.

Disagree politically. Love unconditionally. Pray for unity.

Disagree politically. Love unconditionally. Pray for unity.

Disagree politically. Love unconditionally. Pray for unity.

Conclusion

Here’s the conclusion in a nutshell.

Your candidates will win or lose based on how Americans vote in two months. But the Church wins or loses on how we treat each other and love each other every single day.

That’s why we must not allow anything to divide us. Church, we must put people over politics every time, without exception.