Many Christians at election season scratch their head and wonder exactly what sort of principles are to guide them as they face the ballot box.
This is particularly true at this election season, not only in the UK with 'Brexit' but also in America as citizens here begin to face up to the likely options that they will have on the table. What does it mean for a Christian to vote his or her conscience? What sort of guidelines can be given regarding voting that do not stray over the line of partisanship?
That last question needs underlining. I was told once by a very senior politician, and a strong godly evangelical leader, that he had received a particularly telling piece of advice from Lloyd-Jones regarding his burgeoning political career. The 'Doctor' told him that while his Christian faith must inform his political service (as it must inform and shape every other part of his life), he must also be very careful to ensure that he never associated Christian commitment absolutely with his party affiliation. He was never to give the impression that the only way to be a Christian was to vote for his own political party. That line has often been crossed, and rarely without detriment to the witness of the gospel, except perhaps in extreme cases of moral evil of the worst kind.
Important principle
Beyond, though, generalities such as vote your conscience as a Christian but do not insist that others are bound by your conscience, what else can be said? It is worth reflecting on Romans chapter 13 where Paul tells the Corinthians to submit to the governing authorities, even when such governing authorities were as patently non-Christian as the Roman Emperor at the time. We can render to Caesar what is Caesar’s while also rendering to God what is God’s. Exactly how to do this may, of course, be tricky; but the principle that it is possible to serve as a Christian within a pagan framework at a governmental level is important to reassert. Just because someone is not in a so-called 'Christian' country does not mean that he cannot find a way to flourish as a Christian. We can build the 'city of God' even within the secular city.
Pray for Christian politicians
That all being said, we should not either also undermine the important role of Daniel or Joseph kinds of public service. We need Christians in high office, with evident competency too, who can champion moral precedents, act as protectors of God’s people, and leaven the lump with charity and Christ-likeness, as salt in an otherwise decadent body politic. Our brothers and sisters who serve in the political realm need our prayers, deserve our encouragement, and their work is a legitimate and significant way of worshipping God at work.
Other than that, we can sing old songs such as 'this world is not my home and I’m just a-passing through'. We can pray, as Paul urged Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, for those in power over us that there would be peace and good order so that the gospel might flourish. We can be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. We can live in the world but not of the world.
Some history helps too: while the times are dark, they have been dark before. And God can revive his people again. He has done it in the past. Let us pray and seek him that he might act in fresh power in our churches, our nations, and our world. All the while, if we are privileged to live in a democratic country, exercising our right to vote with prayerful prudence.
