Preaching and Politics, Part 2

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

June 13, 2022

The sexual revolution, transgenderism, inclusion, diversity, equity, racism, same-sex marriage, wokeism, violence in our cities, defund the police, school shootings, gun control, LGBTQ agenda, abortion, epidemic anger and rage, anxiety, depression, mental health. All this does not exhaust the symptoms of our corrupted culture. To say that politics have no place in sermons is distressingly problematic. Let’s get to the point. If churches and pastors are not dealing with “politics,” then the Bible is not being preached. Though pastors are not to be in the business of aligning themselves with a political party or telling congregants for whom they should vote, the Bible speaks to a fallen world. 

The apostle Paul warned Timothy of the gradual moral and spiritual decline in the days before Christ’s second coming (2 Tim. 3:1-9). The reproof of God’s Word is a double-edged sword. It lays bare the souls of the hearers, and that of society as a whole. Reproof is God showing us where we are wrong. Rebuke is placing the blame where it belongs. It is telling the wrong doer to stop it. Ah, but we don’t want to offend people or have our own feelings hurt. We love people and do what is best for ourselves by getting a grip on the truth that, “better is open rebuke than hidden love” (Prov. 27:5). The pronoun police should not be allowed to obscure God-ordained biological reality. 

Is it preaching politics to agree with Jesus when He said, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” (Matt. 19:4). Civilization itself rests upon the difference between XX and XY chromosomes. The differences between male and female are upstream to innumerable physical and moral responsibilities.  While we are at it. Husbands are you living with your wives in an understanding way (1 Pet. 3:7)? To believe and live out this truth would  bring moral and spiritual order to a disordered society. H