Redeeming Politics: Almost nothing is more divisive (and ugly) than politics today. How should Christians engage politically? Whatever issues, candidates, or parties you support, you must connect the values of God’s Kingdom and your allegiance to Jesus, your true King, to your politics — especially with people with different political views than yours! Recorded on Dec 4, 2022, on 1 Peter 3:8-18, by Pastor David Parks.

"Redeeming Regular Life" is a sermon series from the Epistles of the New Testament in the Bible. The Epistles are letters from the Apostles to the early Christian churches helping them understand and apply the gospel to life. "To what part of life?" you might wonder. The answer is: to every part! The way of Jesus changes everything, including marriage, sexuality, singleness, parenting, work, politics, friendship, and more. In Christ, regular life is a gift.

Sermon Transcript

This year, the annual theme of our preaching ministry is Learning the way of Jesus. And right now, we’re in the middle of a series called Redeeming Regular Life. This series is from the household codes found in the epistles/letters in the New Testament in the Bible, from the Apostles of Jesus to various churches around the Roman Empire. Now, in their day, household codes were common and addressed the way our basic relationships (regular life) ought to work. But the apostles wrote on these things from a uniquely Christian perspective, showing how the gospel and the way of Jesus changes everything. So far, we’ve covered redeeming marriage, sexuality, singleness, parenting, and work. If you missed any of those messages, you can always go back and watch or listen online. But today, we’ll move on to a topic many of us would desperately like to avoid, while others of us get maybe a little too excited to talk about, that is, our politics. I understand that by choosing this topic, I have chosen to willingly walk into a minefield with danger in every direction we go. What could be more divisive in our day than talking about politics? For that very reason, as Christians, we must think through these things from a Christian perspective. So what in the world does the gospel have to do with politics? And what does the way of Jesus mean for how we treat people who might have very different political views or beliefs than we do? Those are great questions. But it was really no different back in the first century AD. The Christians back then had political views and issues. They wrestled with how to interact with their political leaders and systems of government. And the instruction the apostles of Jesus give them remains helpful and wise to this day. So if you have a Bible/app, please open to 1 Peter 3:8. We’ll read through this and then unpack it together.

1 Peter 3:8-18 (NIV), “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. 11 They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”  15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,