Certainly we should live out our faith in our lives, but we need to look very carefully at anyone who believes they have a "lock" on God's thoughts about public policy. Such thinking often leads to humanistic pride and subsequent downfall. In the Bible all one has to do is read about Saul, David, and Solomon to see what happens when men think that God will be with them just because they happen to have once been chosen to lead.
At the same time, Christians need to conduct themselves according to biblical principles and speak out when we believe that our leaders have overstepped their bounds and are trampling underfoot the tenets upon which our country were founded. We do need to speak out when our Constitutional rights are being abrogated by a government that wants to marginalize, or even stifle our participation in the public debate in order to advance their own agenda.
This is the fine line that we walk when we decide to enter public debate over the degree that government ought to be involved in our lives. Perhaps in the age of moral relativism this point of view seems slightly schizophrenic to those who haven't come to faith.
I can't speak for all Christians, but I can speak for many people in the faith who daily live out the credos of our God. We believe that sin is real and is the root cause of all suffering and evil, but we also have comfort in the knowledge God the Father IS real, Christ IS real, the Holy Spirit IS real, and that Christ is the only path to salvation and true freedom (regardless of our political leanings).
Those of us who believe that Christ is our Savior remember His words, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22: 37-40).
And again, ". . . Love one another. As I have love you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35) And again, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)
He also states, "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." (John 14: 15-17).
So love and obedience are essential to living out our faith. We don't live it to earn some kind of "free pass" into a wonderful eternity. We know that we would never be able to achieve the perfection required for heavenly citizenship. We know that Christ was the only perfect and acceptable sacrifice that would atone for our sinfulness and offer us the promise of eternal life.
We do it because Christ said that is how His disciples should live, because we see the how evil degrades us, as stated by Paul: "Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." (Rom. 8: 8-9).
Yet God will forgive us-repeatedly if necessary-in order to bring us to him, and we would like others to know the peace and freedom offered in this belief. Even Peter puzzled over this one, ". . . Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sings against me? Up to seven times?" (Matt. 18: 21) And Jesus answered him, ". . I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Matt. 18:22)
When we speak out on public issues, we need to do it in a spirit of humility - not of pride, but in the knowledge that we have been forgiven much. As Paul says, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." (Eph. 4:2-3)
We don't do it because we believe we're better than anyone else. We do it because we see the pain brought on by behaviors that are contrary to Christ's command and are compelled by our faith to present a case that will bring all people into the mature faith presented later on in the same chapter, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Eph. 4: 15-16)
So this Independence Day, we Christians should rejoice that we live in a country that still allows us to speak up. We also need to remember that when we speak up, we do so as witnesses of a God who loves all of his children, in the gratefulness that we feel toward the God who redeemed us all. Because of Him we want to live the life so eloquently described by Paul.
"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry . . . now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. . .
'Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindess, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against once another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all of these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." (Col. 3: 5-14)
And later in the same book, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."
So Christians: Speak up, speak out, say your piece but base it on the Word of God. Don't be afraid to live your faith. Exercise your right to believe, or others will think that faith is of no major concern to you and will believe that they can trample your rights underfoot. Do it because that is what you are called to do by a God who loves all of his children.
