Are Christians Obligated to Vote?

00:00:00.000 | Good Friday to you. Welcome back to the podcast. While many Christians live right now in a

00:00:10.480 | republic, a form of self-governance where we choose our own representatives, we vote

00:00:15.120 | on them, and maybe more than ever, Christians live in free societies. And for them, for

00:00:20.080 | us, are we required to vote? Is voting a Christian duty? Would it be negligent for a Christian

00:00:28.360 | as a citizen of a free society to abstain from an election? We get this question a lot,

00:00:34.400 | and especially in the last six years, it has become pretty common. And we're closing the

00:00:38.080 | week with this most recent version of it, which came from a listener named Danny. "Hello,

00:00:42.560 | Pastor John. I have been struggling with the question lately about whether or not a Christian

00:00:47.360 | who lives in a free society is obligated to vote. God demands that we submit to our governing

00:00:53.320 | authorities to pray regularly for them, and he gives us an allowance for civil disobedience

00:01:00.400 | in rare cases when it is necessary." Acts chapter 5. "But if in a given election the

00:01:07.360 | choices boil down to options I feel no strong conviction toward, or if the election comes

00:01:12.480 | down to an option of the lesser of two evil choices, do Christians have the choice to

00:01:17.560 | simply not vote at all? In my circles, this does not seem to be an option for a faithful

00:01:23.140 | believer. I've been told that this would amount to neighbor neglect on my part. Would it?"

00:01:31.800 | Let's come at this by quoting 1 Peter 2, 11 to 17. And what we're going to hear in this

00:01:40.400 | text is the double identity of the Christian in this fallen world. One identity is sojourner

00:01:52.080 | and exile. In other words, this world is not our home. And the other identity is being

00:01:59.560 | subject in this world to God-pointed authorities of governors and kings. So one identity is

00:02:08.960 | slaves of God, and yes, that is the word used, slaves of God, not at all excluding glorious

00:02:14.640 | truth of child of God. Both have aspects of truth in them. So one identity is slaves of

00:02:20.120 | God owned and ruled by God and no other. And the other identity is one sent by our owner

00:02:30.080 | God into a foreign world to make his glory known through gospel words and good deeds.

00:02:36.080 | So listen for those two identities as I read this text. You are a chosen race, Christians,

00:02:45.800 | a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Let that sink in. A holy nation. And that's not referring

00:02:53.360 | to any earthly nation. That's Christianity. That's the born again people of God from all

00:02:58.520 | the nations. You are a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim

00:03:04.400 | the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So that's

00:03:10.040 | what I mean by gospel words. He called you to proclaim. Verse 11, "Beloved, I urge you

00:03:17.680 | as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against

00:03:24.320 | your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against

00:03:31.360 | you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds." That's why I refer not only to gospel words,

00:03:37.040 | but also good deeds. "And glorify God on the day of visitation." So that's our goal. Make

00:03:42.800 | God look glorious in this land where we live temporarily as aliens and sojourners. Make

00:03:52.880 | him look beautiful, great, valuable. That's our goal. Make God look great. Verse 13, "Be

00:03:59.840 | subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as

00:04:05.680 | supreme or governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do

00:04:10.840 | good." So that's our identity as subjects of God-appointed authority. Verse 15, "For

00:04:21.680 | this is the will of God, that by doing good"—there it is again. We've seen it three times now.

00:04:27.680 | Doing good. "You should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." Live as people

00:04:33.320 | who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as slaves of

00:04:38.360 | God. Now there's our identity as God-owned slaves who are in bondage to no man. Live

00:04:49.360 | as people who are free—that is, free from whatever human authority is claiming you.

00:04:56.600 | But know that your master, God, sends you for his sake into that foreign land for his

00:05:04.520 | purposes. Verse 17, "Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor."

00:05:11.160 | That's the end of the text.

00:05:12.640 | So here's our double identity. Christians are a holy nation called the church, God's

00:05:21.680 | own possession, and therefore as a holy nation we are sojourners and exiles in every other

00:05:29.760 | nation on the planet, including America. Or to say it another way, we are God's slaves,

00:05:38.600 | meaning we are owned by him and responsible to him ultimately alone, not any man.

00:05:49.240 | Then the other part of our double identity is God's call or vocation for us to submit

00:05:57.560 | freely—not because earthly rulers have any final authority over us, but to submit freely

00:06:03.440 | to governors and kings and to do good, do good in these foreign nations like America

00:06:10.920 | where we live for the glory of God. This is the fundamental reality, the structure of

00:06:18.400 | the Christian existence that we need to keep in mind when we are thinking about things

00:06:23.640 | like voting in this foreign land where we live called America, or wherever you happen

00:06:30.380 | to live, listening to this around the world, your own foreign land where you live as aliens

00:06:37.580 | and exiles as Christians.

00:06:40.160 | So what are the implications of what I've just read and said? Here's three.

00:06:47.360 | Number one, we cast a vote every week by assembling in congregational worship and singing our

00:06:56.640 | allegiance to Jesus as Lord over all lords, King over all kings, President over all presidents,

00:07:06.680 | Premier over all premiers, Chief over all chiefs. Christ-exalting corporate worship

00:07:13.940 | is politically the most explosive thing we do. It is absolutely seditious in any regime

00:07:25.280 | that presumes to claim ultimate authority or ultimate allegiance over human beings.

00:07:32.000 | In worship, we say out loud for all to hear, "Jesus Christ is our King over all other

00:07:39.320 | rulers. We must obey him." Obedience to earthly rulers is relative. Obedience to Jesus

00:07:47.480 | is absolute. "The Most High rules the kingdom of men," Daniel says, "and gives it to

00:07:57.480 | whom he will," Daniel 4:34. As legitimate and even as desirable as a proper affection

00:08:09.440 | for our earthly nation—in my case, America—may be, as desirable and proper as affection for

00:08:20.060 | our own earthly nation may be, if weekly worship begins to sound like patriotic rallies rather

00:08:29.780 | than a celebration of King Jesus over every nation, including our own, we're moving

00:08:36.560 | away from biblical faithfulness and toward idolatry. That's the first implication.

00:08:43.600 | Reason number two, there should be no question that Christians, as sojourners and exiles

00:08:50.480 | on the earth, want to do good for the people and the nation we are part of. Christians

00:08:59.020 | care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering, especially suffering nearby. Proximity

00:09:07.980 | applies some measure of accountability. So we bless our communities with gospel words

00:09:16.060 | and good deeds. That's the implication of 1 Peter. Christians do not want to be part

00:09:23.100 | of life-ruining problems in society. We want to be a part of life-bettering solutions in

00:09:32.180 | society. We don't want police to be unjust or unhelpful. We don't want leaders to be

00:09:38.940 | corrupt but to have integrity. We don't want the infrastructures of water and sewer

00:09:46.300 | and electricity and natural gas and roads and bridges and streetlights and fuel supplies

00:09:52.100 | and flood control and building codes and 911 and fire stations—we don't want any of

00:10:00.220 | these to fail. We are willing to pay for them and do our part to keep things functioning

00:10:08.300 | for good, the common good of as many as possible. We want to be a part of helping with the problems

00:10:15.980 | of homelessness and poverty and drug addiction and mental illness and criminal behavior and

00:10:21.540 | domestic violence. We want there to be safe neighborhoods and good schools and affordable

00:10:27.380 | housing and ample jobs and stable economic conditions and international peace. This is

00:10:33.780 | why Peter, two times in this short text, said that we are to be busy doing good deeds so

00:10:42.660 | as, number one, to silence those who say Christianity is bad for the world and, two, to make God

00:10:50.020 | look glorious. That's the second implication. We're not sitting buried away in our little

00:10:56.620 | caves indifferent to the suffering and the needs of our society. Here's the third, last

00:11:04.140 | implication. Voting, voting is one form of doing good. It is one kind of good deed. We

00:11:14.540 | hope by voting for worthy, competent, wise candidates that the common good will come

00:11:22.180 | to more people. That's our goal. But I don't think it follows from any biblical truth that

00:11:30.420 | voting is an absolute duty for Christians. It is one possible good deed alongside many

00:11:39.060 | others, one way of serving the good of society. But there are too many other factors at stake

00:11:46.980 | to describe it as an absolute duty. One of those factors is this. When the duty to vote

00:11:54.540 | is elevated to the point where it overrides other Christian principles of virtue, it has

00:12:03.900 | been taken too far. That duty has been taken too far. At times it happens in a fallen world

00:12:12.660 | that a vote for any proposed candidate is so offensive, so morally compromised, so misleading

00:12:25.500 | that it may be a matter of greater integrity, more faithful obedience to Christ, and a clearer

00:12:32.220 | witness to truth if we do not vote for any of the proposed candidates. And it would be

00:12:40.500 | irresponsible to assume that a choice not to vote for some party or person on the ballot

00:12:51.460 | is a failure to love our neighbor, when in fact the non-voter may be much more involved

00:13:01.540 | in doing socially transformative good deeds than the one who votes for a morally unfit

00:13:07.380 | candidate because he is considered the lesser of two evils. Life is not simple. It is inevitable

00:13:16.420 | that Christians will disagree on strategies for how to do the most good with gospel words

00:13:25.340 | and good deeds and Christian example setting. We must be slow to judge the moral strategies

00:13:35.800 | of other well-meaning people. Just one more thought. If you believe, as I do, that in

00:13:43.620 | principle voting is a great gift and privilege in our society and you want to uphold that

00:13:54.100 | privilege, it is almost always possible to vote by writing in the candidate you think

00:14:02.620 | is worthy, though not on the ballot. And in that way, you may uphold the precious gift

00:14:13.700 | of democratic self-government while avoiding the ruinous effects of supporting unworthy

00:14:22.040 | candidates.

00:14:23.040 | Yeah, sure, it is a great gift and a privilege not to be taken for granted or to be taken

00:14:28.940 | lightly. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for joining us today. Ask a question of

00:14:33.220 | your own, search a growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast, all at askpastorjohn.com.

00:14:40.660 | We are on a bit of a roll here, addressing controversial topics against the papacy on

00:14:44.940 | Monday on Voting Today. And up next, this one. Is it a sin to medically attempt to de-gender

00:14:53.320 | the body? And if so, why? It's a biggie. It's up next on Monday, Pastor John, and I will

00:15:00.300 | see you then.

00:15:00.940 | [END]

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Are Christians Obligated to Vote?

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