Christians, it's Imperative that we Understand our Assignment

Christians, can I be frank? Jesus has an actual strategy for us to reconcile the world to him. . . and winning a "culture war" isn't it. In The Judas Effect, I talk about how our Gospel can become contaminated by our quest for political power. Jesus warns about this in Mark 8:15 when he says,

“Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

Herod was the political ruler of his day. He aligned himself with the Jewish people because he wanted their praise, but his spirit held a particular violent darkness. (Matthew 14:10, Acts 12:1-3.) Unfortunately, his followers were willing to overlook this darkness because they were desperate for the type of power only a king can bequeath.

Our job is not to become politically powerful with the help of an immoral leader. Our job is to reconcile the world to Christ through loving interaction. Jesus never promised his followers that we would be politically powerful on earth, and he certainly doesn't want us to align ourselves with darkness in order to "win a culture war." A fisher of men cannot also be a fisher of power.

The true and pure gospel, when it is uncontaminated by a religious or political mindset, empowers Christ followers to deeply love the world, and to humbly serve in it. Those are the only ideologies we need in order to bring heaven to earth and change the world. Religious legalism is not needed. Herod’s power is not needed. Those influences both involve trying to force people into conformance with our religious and political ideologies.

We don’t need political power to preach a pure gospel. We need spiritual power. And what the church “gains” in political power via an alliance with a bully like Herod, it will lose in spiritual power. Allyship with Herod may make us feel special for a time in that we think we’ve achieved a political win—but according to Christ, a gospel contaminated by Herod is not a win for the actual kingdom of God at all.

I daresay that Jesus' strategy is better than ours. Let's forget about winning a culture war, and get back to loving people well. What do you think?