One of the hallmarks of the American political system (and many others) is the need for engagement. If people are not engaged, they simply won’t vote – or worse, they may vote for ‘the other person’. A side effect of this is that our leaders and potential leaders all need to persuade us to become engaged. They need to get us excited and telling our friends.
First of all, they need us to believe they are wise. Wise enough to lead not just 320 million people, but guide a country which is a global leader on the world stage.
Mostly though, they need us to identify our beliefs and desires with their promises. Once we are convinced they are wise (and their opponent is not), and identify with their message, we will become engaged, vote, and hopefully engage others with our new-found wisdom (and identity). Nothing sells like a recommendation from a trusted friend.
I was reading through first Corinthians this morning, and whilst the comment on rulers is to a different group in a different time, the message remains the same. The wisdom of this world will pass away. It is temporary. Not only that, often it is contrary to God and His kingdom.
1 Corinthians 2:6–11 (ESV)
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
We live in a world that wants to engage us, and wants us to identify with it. It wants us to drag us down to the things of earth, rather than the things of God. In doing so, it turns us into fools before God – “For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” – as we accept the wisdom and identity of this world.
I am not saying the political process is not valuable (a discussion on value will have to wait for another time). However, it is not wisdom from God! No president, prime minister or dictator is going to bring the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth – only Jesus Christ can do that. No president, mayor or governor will save this world. In many ways, the engagement that our politicians want from us will draw us away from God and His word. It will draw us away from His kingdom. We still need to be part of this world, engaged in it, but with full knowledge that what this world calls wise is maybe not wisdom before God.
So when a politician tries to engage us as the ‘Christian candidate’, or the ‘evangelical’, ‘catholic’, ‘baptist’ candidate, the first thing we need to do is think. Are they preaching the wisdom of God – or this world? Are they identifying with us as they are also Kingdom Citizens who are seeking God’s will in this world, or do they just want our votes?
Remember, the wisdom of this world is folly – but we possess the hidden wisdom of God. All of the systems of this world will pass away, just like each of us. In the end the only thing that will matter is are we identified with Christ – or not?
1 Corinthians 3:16–23 (ESV)
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
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