Staying Unified When You Vote For Different People

Jim and Emily care about politics, but they care even more about their family and their local church. The heat of a congressional or presidential campaign feels threatening to both. They asked me, “How do we maintain a love that lasts when we see that our nation, churches, and even families are being torn apart over political disagreement?”

Heart Work 

First, Jim and Emily can regularly take the temperature of their own hearts. Eighteenth-century writer William Law provided a helpful paradigm when he identified the three marks of the “natural man”—resistance, rage, and darkness—and compared them to the three marks of a Spirit-filled believer: unity, joy, and happiness. 

If you are marked by

• Resistance
• Rage
• Darkness

you’re in an unhealthy place spiritually. Christians who worship a beautiful and loving God have no business remaining in this condition.

Healthy Christians are marked by

• Unity
• Joy
• Happiness

Even when they debate and disagree, they don’t lose their desire for unity, they are marked by joy, not rage, and they have a happiness instead of malice and anger. This is a healthy Christian disposition.

An abundance of “resistance, rage, and darkness” is like a warning light on our car’s dashboard, telling us that our spiritual engines are overheating. If we wake up constantly angry, if our focus is on resisting (as opposed to surrendering to God’s providence for that day), our spiritual engine is about to blow. The ultimate Christian posture is surrender, trusting in God’s providence and power. If you are all resistance, you are setting yourself up for a spiritually dangerous attitude. 

The ultimate Christian posture is surrender, trusting in God’s providence and power.

Aldous Huxley writes: “Those who crusade not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was…By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself…To be more against the devil than for God is exceedingly dangerous. Every crusader is apt to go mad. He is haunted by the wickedness which he attributes to his enemies; it becomes in some sort a part of him.”

When someone’s life is marked by what they are against, they meditate on what they hate, but when you meditate on something, you become like that, so keep worshipping our beautiful God. Regardless of your political passions, pursue and focus on love.   

The three marks of a Spirit-filled believer keep us pointed toward social and relational health. Unity comes from the Christian call that regardless of whether I agree with someone politically, I must be for them spiritually and always wish God’s best for them. Dallas Willard challenges me and humbles me with his insistence that our faith is demonstrated most clearly in the way we treat our enemies. A spirit of unity should be a non-negotiable for every believer: God wants to adopt every man and woman as his son or daughter (1 Timothy 2:4). I may disagree with my children, but I don’t want a single one of them destroyed. 

As a citizen of the United States, I may vote against you and debate you (hopefully, in a respectful way). As a citizen of heaven, I should be for you as God is for everyone, not wanting any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

The “joy” and “happiness” of the Spirit-filled life are preserved by knowing God is king, God wins in the end, and God will walk us through times of foolish government or wise government. Our ultimate well-being is never in the hands of elected officials; it rests in the secure presence and promises of an unelected and eternal God. As believers, we may debate with earnestness, but never with desperation. 

As believers, we may debate with earnestness, but never with desperation.

Compassion for Others

“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36, CSB). 

Let’s be like Jesus and have compassion for the angst of a nation that is drifting away from its source of security. As followers of God, we know we have a providential shepherd who takes care of us. We know we have a wealthy heavenly benefactor who promises to provide for us, regardless of who is President or Speaker of the House. We know we have a healer, should anyone attack us, and even more importantly, we know our eternal destiny is secure in Jesus’ death and resurrection. No one can do us the ultimate harm because God’s eternal promise is certain. 

But imagine if you didn’t have any of that. You’d be desperate! You’d be vicious in your argumentation because you’d feel like your very life and security depended on your enemies losing. And you’d naturally be tempted to hate anyone who stood in your way because your candidate being defeated would feel like…death. 

We can be different by being compassionate toward those with whom we disagree. Because we have a Shepherd, we enjoy rare security in a world filled with insecurity, infighting, and hatred.  

If your family members disagree with you, show compassion first. If your neighbors or fellow church members disagree with you, show compassion first. Jesus certainly didn’t agree with the crowds that came toward him, but his first response was compassion. And then he taught.  

So in a season that naturally divides, we preserve a love that lasts by taking the temperature of our own hearts first—seeking unity, joy, and happiness—and reminding ourselves that we have a shepherd, which allows us to respond to others with compassion. 

First Things First

Seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33) means that our Heavenly Father is the face we seek first thing every morning; that we speak His name and seek His blessing for our loved ones the last thing every evening; and that we believe God’s eventual victory is certain and fabulous. Living with that aim and hope makes us so happy and feels us with so much joy that we can never collapse into rage or make a home in the darkness regardless of who gets elected, appointed, or confirmed. 

Jesus’ stated agenda lifts us above all controversies in all times and for all seasons. In this particular season that naturally divides, let’s pursue a love that lasts by being compassionate peacemakers who know we have a shepherd and who approach politics differently because of that.