Choosing Devotion Over Division
As followers of Christ, if our first love is a party, Republican or Democrat, then we have replaced God with a new idol, and our ability to witness is limited.
Jesus never aligned Himself with any man-made party. In fact, he announced a different government altogether: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). When we read the Gospels with clear eyes, we don’t see Jesus following his favorite politician, arguing for their ideologies, and separating himself from people. What do we see? We see Him proclaiming the Kingdom of God, healing the broken, and calling people like the Pharisee, the tax collector, the zealot, and the Roman soldier into a new allegiance. If we are to be like Christ, why are we dividing ourselves over political affiliations He never claimed?
James warns believers not to “harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition” and not to be quarrelsome, but to be “peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit” (James 3). That command doesn’t pause during election season. When our social feeds drip with contempt, when we label fellow image-bearers more by their vote than by their value, we have traded the aroma of Christ for the stench of a culture war.
Idolatry happens whenever a good thing becomes the ultimate thing. Political involvement can be good; justice, policies, and leaders matter. But when politics becomes the lens for everything, including Scripture, our neighbors, and the church, it has taken the throne of our hearts. The fruit is obvious: anxiety spikes with every poll, friendships fracture over headlines, and our hope rises or falls with the market and the map. That is not freedom; that is bondage.
Remember our citizenship. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Kingdom people carry passports stamped with eternity. One day, Christ will return and establish His rule fully and finally. On that day, there will be no Republicans, no Democrats, no campaign ads, only the King and His people. If that is our forever, why invest our identity in what is fading? As King Solomon would say, many of our fiercest arguments are meaningless in light of God’s eternal reign.
So what should faithful engagement look like?
1. Seek first the Kingdom. Let Matthew 6:33 set your priorities. Start your day with the King before you scroll the news. Let Scripture, not pundits, shape your conscience.
2. Vote then move on. Steward your civic responsibility with prayer and wisdom. Then refuse to make outcomes your idol. Win or lose, place your energy back on Kingdom work: discipleship, mercy, justice, evangelism.
3. Honor everyone. Speak of political opponents as neighbors, not enemies (James 3; 1 Peter 2:17). Refuse sarcasm, slander, and fearmongering. Replace “owning the other side” with “bearing one another’s burdens.”
4. Build something better. The church should model a counterculture of unity, Democrats and Republicans taking the Lord’s Supper together, serving side by side, disagreeing without division. That testimony is more powerful than any yard sign.
5. Pray for leaders, not to leaders. Intercede for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2). Pray for wisdom, justice, humility and a God movement that no election can deliver.
The world is influenced daily by outrage. The church must be discipled by Jesus. Political parties will rise and fall; policies will be written and rewritten; maps will flip and flip back. But the Kingdom of God is unshakable. Let’s be known not as the people who carry the loudest partisan megaphone, but as the people who carry the cross together. Vote with conviction, yes. But set your hope where it cannot be counted on a ballot. No king but Christ.