Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Political or Spiritual?

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16)

This particular post has been gnawing at me for quite some time, beloved, and only last night did it actually begin to take shape and become something that I truly believe has come from the Spirit of God.  You see, like so many other Americans who are Christians I have been closely following this current presidential campaign - watching all the political commercials (true and false), listening to the myriad of "sound bytes" that assault our ears each and every day, thinking about how much this country that I love could change disastrously if the wrong man wins this election.  But then again, who hasn't, right?

Last night as I was getting ready for bed and was thinking back over the day's political bombshells that burst all around us, I began to realize that my focus as a Christian should not be primarily political but rather spiritual.  And the words of the Apostle Paul to the saints in the region of Galatia came to mind:

Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh!

My greatest responsibility before God, beloved, is not to vote the right way, but to live the right way!  And as I thought further about these words of Paul, I realized that if I will as a Christian but give myself wholly to the right walk, then I will not have to worry about the right vote.  Though no one with any sense of perception can deny that this world is in a mess, that reality does not for a single moment alter the one and only solution that the Spirit of God within each one of us would have us to see.  Consider with me for a moment, then, the command of God here in Paul's words: "walk by the Spirit."

The word here translated "walk" actually means order one's behavior or conduct oneself in a certain manner.  The noun form in the New Testament refers commonly to a person's lifestyle, that which is consistently the same, that which we show to those who are all around us. To "walk by the Spirit," then, is to live your life consistently under the direct control of the Spirit of God.  It is to demonstrate a life that is given over completely to what God wants and one that seeks every moment of every day to be pleasing to God even at the cost of what others may say or do.  It is to see life through God's eyes, to seek God's glory in every decision, every choice that we make.  And that, beloved, includes how we carry out our God-given privilege of electing public officials.  We carry out that responsibility according to God's standard and we do so for God's glory and not for our own political advantage.

As we make the decision to so live, what will be the outcome?  Consider the remainder of Paul's words: "you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."  When we yield to the control of God's Spirit, beloved, we walk the path that God has for us and that of necessity means that we avoid what the selfish person inside us desires.  We live for God's purpose and God's glory and not for our own agenda.  Suddenly party planks and platforms take on a whole new perspective in our thinking.  We examine everything and everyone in light of how they line up with what God says is true and just and right.

So there you have it.  Should we be political or should we be spiritual?  I am persuaded that if we will but give ourselves completely to walking by the Spirit as Paul here commands, all that is political will fall into place.  And when our world begins to see us as Christians really living like we have always been intended to live, imagine what the Spirit of God will be able to do in this world of ours that has so desperately lost its way!

Ron