Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Christians must care about poverty relief, but is the state mandated living wage? Is that the answer? Christians have got to care about healing the sick.
Is universalized healthcare or private enterprise the best way to help that? We got to be careful to differentiate between what is clear in God's word and between applications that are less clear because our commission to preach the gospel is so much more important. You understand? Hello and welcome to Summit Life with J.D. Greer, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Do I need to remind you? It's election season.
As if it's not in our faces 24-7, right? Well, we felt that it was the perfect time to introduce some brand new teaching here on the program to help us all think biblically about what's coming up in just a few short weeks. You see, while it is every Christian's responsibility to bring their faith and understanding of God's kingdom into all that they do, the church as an organization has a limited platform. Today, Pastor J.D. looks at the church's duty to preach righteousness, justice, and compassion as well as our complementary role as church members so that we can be united by what is most important, our identity in Christ. So what does it look like to think differently about politics and our role as Christ followers? Let's join Pastor J.D. now for this important teaching.
Y'all, you understand that there is nothing that foments division in our country like an election. What I'm going to do, I'm going to show you that there is a general mindset that all Christians ought to have when they approach questions like these questions. A set of, let's call them first principles, a set of first principles that we agree on and then after that, we extend to one another a level of freedom and grace. The church is not supposed to be a place where everybody sees every issue exactly the same. That's called a cult. And what God planted was not a cult. What he planted was a church that was made up of people that were natural enemies in society that found a common unity in Christ that was greater than their divisions. I will say it plainly, okay? Political questions are important, but the gospel that unites us is more important.
Friends, you know this, these are toxic waters. These issues cause deep division in the church and they really shouldn't. The good news, the good news, if you want to see it this way is that this is not a new problem in the church and the Bible speaks directly to it.
The reason these things still cause such division in the church among many of us is that when it comes to these questions, many of us are more discipled by CNN and Fox News than we are the scriptures. Some of you care more about how your neighbor votes than where they're going to spend eternity. And what that shows you is that you have traded your allegiance to Jehovah Nissi and his cause.
You've traded that for a political idol. There's just two things that I want to try to show you today. They both come from the gospel of Luke. So if you got your Bible, Luke chapter 10 is where I'd love for you to open up or turn it on and find it there. Luke 10 is where we're going to begin.
Here's the first thing. The first thing is when it comes to pursuing justice, Christians are motivated by love for their neighbor and that affects everything, including how they think politically. Second thing I want to show you is that in practicing justice, Christians can disagree on how it looks like.
Okay. So number one, let's talk about pursuing justice. Christians are motivated by love for neighbor. We're going to look very quickly at a very familiar, familiar parable, parable of the good Samaritan. Jesus's answer to the question of who is my neighbor that I'm supposed to love like I love myself.
His answer is whoever around you is in need and your responsibility, your responsibility is to regard their needs as important as your own, being willing to do whatever it takes to lift them up, even if it comes to great personal cost to yourself. You say, what's that got to do with an election? As Americans, as Americans, we love to talk about our rights. And according to scripture, that is not all wrong. Our founding fathers in the United States recognize correctly from the Bible that God gave to each of us certain rights and dignity, certain freedoms, chief of which is the choice of whether to worship or reject God. So rights are good.
Okay. But as followers of Jesus, we are also called to die to our rights. Jesus said, if any man follows me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Insisting on your rights feels very American. Dying to your rights does not, but that's where the call to follow Jesus and the call to follow the American dream diverge. It was a radical, unpopular message in Jesus's day, just as it is in ours. The world tells us to prioritize our needs. It tells us to choose candidates that would prioritize our needs and cater to what is best for us and whatever class of people we think that we're in. Jesus calls us to prioritize the needs of others.
Let me take this a step deeper. There's a biblical word that Christians often misuse, or at least they don't understand the full implications of it. That word is justice. When we use the word justice, quite often what we mean by that is we only mean that everybody's rights are protected. And it certainly means that. But biblically justice also means the obligation of the rich to care for the poor and their responsibility to use whatever resources they have, right?
However they got them to use those resources to lift them up. The word justice in Hebrew is the word mishpat. Mishpat occurs over 200 times in the Old Testament. And usually when you see that word, you're going to see four classes of people that are brought up connected to mishpat, justice, widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. The just person, scripture says, is the one who is involved in helping these four groups. Here's one, Deuteronomy chapter 10, God executes justice, mishpat, for the fatherless and the widow. He loves the sojourner, the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. The just person in the Old Testament is the one who sees his or her resources as belonging to the whole community, a gift they have been given to steward for the benefit of the whole community. Over a hundred times the Bible talks about the obligation of the rich to care for the poor, that for those of us who it means, God considers it our obligation to look after those without means.
And he will hold us accountable for whether or not we used our resources that way. Our spiritual poverty, isn't this what the gospel teaches us? Our spiritual poverty was brought on us by ourselves and Jesus helped us anyway.
Thank God, amen. Jesus says the measure of our understanding of the gospel is how we respond to the poor. Here's another vulnerable group the Bible commands us to care for, the sojourners. Deuteronomy 10, 18, for the Lord loves the sojourner.
He gives him food and clothing. The Hebrew word for sojourner, scholars say, you could just translate as immigrant. As Christians, when we go to the ballot box, like the good Samaritan for followers of Jesus, we ought to be thinking not just about our own rights, right, but all of these. And we ought to make decisions based on what helps others, not just what helps us, right?
We should have no tolerance, I would tell you, for statements or policies that denigrate or harm these groups. We understand, of course, that we live in a free pluralistic society where people can make their own choices, but we also know that what God declares as good is not arbitrary. He declares it good because it's good for creation and it leads to good in people's lives. So as much as it's possible, we want to see our society aligned with what God declares to be good. So we rightly should desire to see elected those who both promote and exemplify righteousness. But that leads me to number two, the second thing I want to point out from Luke, and that is in practicing justice, Christians can disagree on how it looks.
In pursuing justice, we're united on what we want. In practicing it, we can disagree on how it looks. Jump over two chapters of Luke chapter 12. I want to take you to a moment in Jesus's life that I've talked about recently, but I really want to press in on this and I'm going to lay out a case from it, a very brief one, for why the church, the institutional church, what I and our staff and pastors represent, why we on the whole should avoid getting entangled in the political specifics in the practice of justice. Here's the situation in Luke 12. Jesus is asked, look at it there, verse 13, he's asked to adjudicate a particular social justice complaint.
There's a younger brother who is accusing the older brother of leveraging his older brother privilege to cheat him out of his rightful inheritance. And let me just say, scholars tell us that was a legitimate problem in ancient Israel. This is a legitimate social justice complaint. Now, if you know anything about the life and ministry of Jesus, you know that Jesus cares about injustice. Like I told you, over 200 times in the Old Testament tells us that God cares about this and Jesus, being the son of God, he cares about it. In his sermon, Jesus frequently condemned greedy exploitation, which would certainly be at work here, particularly by the powerful against the weak. In fact, Luke goes on to say, point out that Jesus in a couple chapters, chapter 16, points out that those in positions of power who do not use their positions of power to lift up others who are less privileged than them.
Jesus says in Luke 16, their danger of hellfire, regardless of how fervent they are in their religion, right? We just saw this in the parallel of the Good Samaritan, that Jesus says that his followers are responsible to address injustice, even if they had no part in the injustice. So can we suffice it to say, Jesus cares about injustice?
That's not in question here. But what you see, watch this, instead of giving, instead of giving a specific, you might even say political answer to this question, Jesus withholds his opinion. He says rather starkly, verse 14, man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter over you in this situation? Instead, what Jesus does, you read on the verses after it, you'll see he preaches a little mini sermon that warns both brothers about the idolatry of money. You see, had Jesus adjudicated this case, he would have caught off half of his audience and Jesus had been sent to seek and save the lost on all sides of these issues. So Jesus showed restraint in adjudicating the particulars of this case so that he could preach the gospel to both of them, to all of them. Following him, the institutional church shows restraint in adjudicating the particulars of political and social questions.
I mean, which policies or which candidates best get the job done, which strategies work best, because our commission in the local church is to preach the gospel to everybody. Perhaps it might be helpful here to recognize a distinction between what I call is the church's organization and the church's organism, because the calling on each of those dimensions of the church is different. As an organism, members of the church ought to infiltrate every dimension of society, bringing God's wisdom and shalom into that dimension of society.
It's like Abraham Kuyper said, there's not one square inch of the entire universe over which Jesus does not declare mine. It's part of the creation mandate. That's the role of church members. You are to infiltrate every part of society and bring your understanding of kingdom principles into those areas.
That's organism. As organization, we, the church, have a limited platform reflecting an extension of the earthly ministry of Jesus. As such, our focus is on proclaiming the gospel message and teaching all things that Jesus commanded, the words that came out of his mouth. Those principles, in other words, explicitly stated in scripture. That's the role of church officers and staff. Whereas members, you can and should bring your perception of God's wisdom into your respective sphere, church leaders, we ought to limit our platforms to what the Bible clearly says, because we're responsible to disciple people in what Jesus directly commanded. Which policies or which candidates work best in accomplishing societal goods is almost always an indirect application of scriptural principles.
In places where there's a direct line between what the Bible teaches and an application, then we speak clearly as a church. Where there's more of what I would call a dotted line. Which candidate does it best? Which issues should take priority over the others?
What strategies are best? I call that a dotted line. When there's a dotted line, then we usually refrain. As an organization, we preach righteousness. We preach justice. We preach compassion and love. As members of the organization, you, the members, you ought to apply that in government, education, and business.
The roles are complementary, but in most cases, you understand they are distinct. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with J.D. Greer. We'll get back to today's teaching in just a moment, but first, have you ever read a Bible commentary?
Do you actually own a commentary? A lot of us might think that these books are just for pastors who prepare sermons, but that's simply not true. And in fact, our current featured resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters is a commentary that Pastor J.D. co-wrote with Heath Thomas called Exalting Jesus in First and Second Samuel. And the reason we chose it this month is because it's written to be a bit more devotional than academic, and it's very readable, if you know what I mean.
It's still incredibly rich in truth, but able to be digested easily and then readily applied. In fact, it even includes reflection and application questions at the end of each chapter to help drive home the message. We'd love to send you a copy today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.
You can give today by calling 866-335-5220 or heading to jdgreer.com. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Tim Keller says that it's helpful if you think about this in a non-controversial area, right? So as a pastor, I preach, and a lot of people are members, are there in financial planning, okay?
And they need to learn to apply kingdom principles and financial planning. When it comes to what it means to be ethical and kingdom-driven and stock trading, I'm probably not the best guy to give all the advice on that. I can preach the principle of justice, but what counts as insider trading? What counts as unethical trading?
When is a loan, when does it become predatory and what's the difference in that and just healthy, you know, healthy loans? I can preach the principle, but I'm probably not the best one to jump in and give the specifics. That needs to be a conversation between me, the pastor, and then the one who's been called to work in that area. Well, see the same conversation ought to take place between pastors and politicians where pastors advocate principles and the electorate applies. But the church's organization, you see, we refrain from attaching our authority to particular strategies and what I call the dotted line round. Now I do want to add, all right, there can be exceptions and there are exceptions.
There are places, y'all, where the application is so clear that we can connect the dots. For example, if you're a German pastor in 1940, you need not only to speak about the value of Jewish lives, you need to oppose Nazism, right? Tragically, I will tell you that a lot of the evangelical church sat on the sideline in the civil rights movement when that's a very clear issue that there's no dotted line. That's a straight line and we ought to have been more present than a lot of our forefathers were. Today, I would add into that list pro-life legislation, anti-discrimination laws, religious freedom protections. Those are clear enough that we can advocate directly like Paul did on certain occasions if you read the book of Acts, but they really should be the exceptions. By the way, we see this restraint in the early church. You understand that there were plenty of societal and political reforms that were needed in the first century Roman empire. I would dare say even more than we need in ours.
We got a lot, but they had even more. Yet we don't see the apostles prescribe political solutions to any of them. Not because they weren't smart enough to think of answers. I mean, I don't know about you, but I for one would love to see a letter from the apostle Paul outlining his planned reforms to the Roman empire. I mean, he did a great job with that, but in an incredible act of discipline, he chose not to so that he could preach the gospel to all. Of course, the gospel that they preach planted the seeds that would ultimately lead to these societal reforms, but the church as an organization and the apostles as its representatives, they kept themselves focused on preaching the gospel and proclaiming those things that Jesus explicitly commanded. Christians must care about poverty relief, but is the state mandated living wage?
Is that the answer? Well, I know some Christians that say yes, that that's ultimately fair. Others say no, that ultimately would hurt the poor, right?
It would lower the wage for everybody. That's a great discussion. You ought to have it, but should the church tie its authority and its message to one of those positions? Christians have got to care about healing the sick. Is universalized healthcare or private enterprise the best way to help that? And that's another great discussion. Christians should care about education.
Is school choice the right answer or voucher system? Is that helpful? Christians rightly care about protection of voting rights or voter ID laws. Is that a helpful protection against voter fraud or are those things inherently discriminatory? Christians have got to care about immigrants and refugees, but does the Bible give us the exact number that God wants our nation to allow? Are there verses in the Bible that tell us that?
Is the answer whatever number is higher? That's God's number and the one that's lower is mean-spirited? We've got to be careful to differentiate between what is clear in God's word and between applications that are less clear, right? Because our commission to preach the gospel is so much more important, you understand? So we take things of secondary importance and we say those are important, but the gospel is even more important. Let me tell you one place where I got it wrong.
Hopefully you won't get too much pleasure in this. In 2003, I was on what they call the Southern Baptist Resolutions Committee, which is once a year they select about 10 representatives and they come and you make statements on behalf of all the 50,000 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. And we were asked to make a public statement in support of the Iraq war. Again, I don't know if you remember 2003, some of you were like two years old at that point, but nearly everybody in our country in 2003 was in support of the Iraq war. I mean, it was like bipartisan. Hillary Clinton was for it and it seemed like everybody was for it, you know, like that.
And so personally, I'll tell you, I was for it. Like I thought it seemed to me like a legitimate and just war. Well, we were asked to, and in that committee, I was like, I just don't feel like, why would the, why is the convention of churches endorsing a war? I was like, wouldn't it be better for us to like outline the principles of just war, call our government leaders to investigate them and say that we will pray for them in doing that. Wouldn't that be a better approach?
The other members of the committee thought that, no, we need to actually put some teeth in this. And so we came out in 2003 and officially as a group of churches endorsed the Iraq war only to watch over the next six or seven months as all these things kind of came unraveled and everybody changed their opinion. And you know what? That's okay because people are fallible and we get things wrong. But the question is why did we tie the church's reputation and authority to something listen that we were neither called nor competent to jump into? You understand that policies always look so clear in the moment, right?
They always look so obvious and you're like, well, this is obviously what you need. But what happens is right when I, as a church leader, tie the church's reputation to something that I'm not called or competent to adjudicate, I hinder the gospel that I am, I am called to proclaim. That's why we show as a church that kind of restraint.
So we're going to refrain from endorsing particular candidates or particular approaches. I just tell you as believers, you ought to have patience with one another and patience when people who see things differently from you, cause you got to differentiate between what is clear in God's word that we must agree on and practical applications that we don't. What unites us is not our politics here. What unites us is our identity in Christ and our commission to preach the gospel. That's what's of first importance. That is what is above all. I'll just tell you in conclusion, I quote my friend David Platt again here. He says, there are certain issues on which every Christian should agree, but there's no political method for resolving these issues upon which every Christian has to agree. However, there is, listen, a clear spiritual method for resolving these issues upon which every Christian should agree.
And that is faith in Jesus. You're going to have a flag that's going to wave on the top of your heart. It should not be Republican.
It should not be Democrat. I hope that what you will fly highest will be the gospel flag. I hope that you will pledge your highest allegiance to Jehovah Nissi. Like I said, we are not the party of the elephant. We're not the party of the donkey. We're the people of the land.
And that's because we understand from this book that ultimately our salvation did not come riding in on the wings of air force one. It was born in a manger 2000 years ago, our true King, our true King doesn't sit behind the resolute desk. He reigns from the right hand of God. So the question I want you to ask as we go into this series is very simply, is he your flag? Is that the flag flying at the top of your heart?
Is his cause your highest cause? In fact, let me just close this in a word of prayer. If I could get you, bow your heads with me for just a moment here. I want to tell you that whatever King you trust in is going to let you down unless it's Jesus. And even in a message like this one, are you being compelled to say, Lord Jesus, I need to be reunited to you. I don't want to be enemies to you.
I don't want to be in a different party than you. And so I just surrender to you right now. Friend, the gospel is that Jesus Christ died to save you because you couldn't save yourself, but he offers it as a gift. You have to receive it.
If you've never done that, I want you to receive it right now. See, Jesus, I surrender and I receive. Father, I pray that the Summit Church would not be characterized by a political party or even by a political lenient. We'd be characterized by the gospel, a gospel that compels justice and righteousness, a gospel that saves people. Which flag is flying highest for you?
The flag of a political party or the flag of the gospel. That's a strong reminder from Pastor JD here on Summit Life. Now, Pastor JD, I've walked into your personal study at church and I've admired your book collection. The book started the floor and go up two stories. I mean, you have a ladder in your library. That may or may not have been inspired by the beauty and the beast. Yes.
I purchased a 14 foot ladder. It's one of my favorite things. But yes, I love, love, love. I love how Paul, when he's in prison, he tells whoever he sent the message to, like, hey, bring a coke because it's cold in this prison and also bring the books. That's what I would want is to make sure I'm warm and fed and have lots to read.
Yeah, I love it. And I know not everybody is a bookworm. Maybe your audible is your thing or whatever, but we want to be able to help you grow your library, whether you're a bookworm or not. And sometimes having the right books to help guide you through parts of the Bible is so helpful.
I love it. Honestly, Molly, I love my kids to see. I keep a special section of books. We're here in my study right now, but special section at home because I want my kids to know what's important to me.
And there's just lots of books on the Bible and lots of books on missions. And so this is the kind of book, this little thing that I've written on 1 and 2 Samuel, that it just goes up there. It's a good reference when you have questions about it. If you're teaching, it's also just good to say this is what's important to me. It'll help you.
If you've loved the teaching on the life of David, it'll help you go even deeper. It's a great resource in your library. We'd love to give you one. Take a look at jdgreer.com. To give, call us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or visit our website now at jdgreer.com. That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R.com. I'm Molly Bidevich.
Tomorrow, we'll dig into four myths Americans believe about politics as we continue our brief series on the topic. We'll see you Thursday for Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
