Fruitful Politics: Love

No good tree bears bad fruit... (Luke 6:43-45)

The following plea appeared in my Facebook feed on a primary day in March 2016:

To my brothers and sisters in Christ. Please don't vote in anger and frustration but vote for the candidate who will make God first again in our great nation.

I appreciate the sentiment, although I may not agree with the political assumptions behind the words.

To my mind, if brothers and sisters in Christ really want to be fruitful in putting God first in our great nation, we won't be putting the emphasis on the right opinions or moral platforms. It will look more like Spirit-driven Christians bearing the Spirit's fruit in abundance as they walk with the Spirit through the minefields of politics.

The first among Paul's list of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is Love.

During Jesus' three year ministry, his priority was always on loving God, loving your neighbor, and loving your enemies. On the few occasions when he was confronted with political questions or politically sensitive topics, he always responded in a way that demonstrated his focus on those three things: love for God, love for your neighbor, and love for your enemies.

In 21st century America, everyone and every topic has become polarized. Even many Christians have bought into the either/or approach to issues and to people. If you're a supporter of Candidate A, you should despise and believe the worst about their opponent. If you agree with Policy X, you must believe the worst about people who are opposed to X.

Believe it or not, it's possible to love the Bible's teachings about morality and yet still love immoral people, whether they be homosexuals, liars, greedy, crude, or just plain flawed like the rest of us. In fact, that's the second greatest of the Bible's teachings.

It's possible - and praiseworthy - to love both the sinners and the saved.

It's possible to have loving compassion on the very real oppression experienced by black people while also loving and honoring law enforcement officials. It's also possible to resist turning such tensions into memes that reduce people and their problems into labels and jokes.

It's possible to have strong views about the politics of immigration and yet respond to immigrants - legal or illegal - with an abundance of love.

It's possible to form an opinion about something and choose to keep it to yourself for the sake of actively loving people who might disagree with you.

We would do well to read Paul's treatise on love in I Corinthians 13 over and over again during political season. His practical, down-to-earth description of love in action would help us to bear fruit when we talk politics.

• The fruitful Christian will respond to the belligerence of politically intense people with patience.

• Rudeness and insult won't be a part of the kind demeanor of the fruitful Christian.

• The fruitful Christian will avoid dishonoring others in our conversations and our social media posts - even if those others are politicians who seem to have little honor.

• The fruitful Christian is not easily angered, not even by people whose political viewpoints seem in extreme opposition to godliness and justice.

• The fruitful Christian won't be constantly looking for every little slip-up an opposing candidate or politician makes, keeping a record of wrongs, amplifying the faults of the "wrong" politician and glossing over the faults of the "right" person.

Politicians and hot topics come and go, but love never fails.


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This is the first in a series of edited and updated blog posts first posted during the political season of 2016.