Platform and People
Scripture Reading - John 13:34-35 KJV
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Today’s lesson continues our teaching on the subject of “Leadership”. We have seen a lot of division in the Body of Christ over the two primary candidates. One thing we find very interesting is that some say vote the platform because that is what really matters. We even heard some people more recently say if we vote the person who can put a good supreme court judge in office that is the primary objective. Some believe the Supreme Court nominee to be just as important (or more important) than the office of the President of the United States. Since these are two separate issues we will address them one at a time. First, voting the platform doesn’t guarantee success. Why? Some may ask, it is primarily because the easy part is putting words in writing that sound good but doing those things is a lot more difficult. For example both the Pharisees and Sadducees had a written law to go by but applied the law with the wrong motive because they didn’t understand the Love of God. Yes, the Old Testament law was written very well and had God’s signature all over it. However, just because the law was holy it didn’t make the people holy. Likewise if you have right policies it will not equate to righteous people. So, the written policy is only as good as the persons interpreting the policy. So when reading the various platforms it does seem that one could favor God’s Word more but that same side also is applying the principles of God’s Word as a law which takes away from that same platform because they are limiting their ability to love all. For years the Lord Jesus Christ was trying to convert the Jews of his day, when He walked among us in public ministry, away from the Old Testament law by coming into the current dispensation of Grace where we believe on the work Jesus did as opposed to our own good works. This dispensation of Grace is much better and much more securing. We (ihlcc) firmly believe that political platforms set a course for the party but generally speaking politics and the current governing system here in this nation as in all other nations upon this earth are strongly influenced by the world’s system. This means some individuals are going to be given to lust, pride and money. Those who crave those things are worldly and they will prosper in the world’s system of government we would hope you would understand that this system is not pure so don’t expect all the candidates running for office to be pure either. Therefore, we are encouraged by scripture not to judge the candidate by their platform but rather judge all people by their fruit. We do know that it takes faith and patient to inspect fruit but when you are voting for someone to hold a public office that can influence many others we believe it to be a worthwhile investment. As we mentioned in another article judging their fruit would include their public display of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance as stated in Galatians 5:22-23. We must also judge their fulfillment of their words by their own actions. We find this election quite interesting in the fact that people are looking for the perfect saint to be president but that is immaturity and deception because as we mentioned early God doesn’t choose His Servants based upon their perfect service record but rather the Lord looks on the heart. Remember how king David was selected by God in 1 Samuel 16:7 KJV when the Lord spoke these words to the Prophet Samuel, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” Since God Himself looks upon the heart of the individual He selects for public office, shall we not do likewise? Yes, look for heart fruit and a simple strategy is whoever has the most godly heart fruit could win your vote. We (ihlcc) have good people close to us that are Republican, we also have family members who are Democrats, we also have solid friends who are Independents, therefore we love them all the same and encourage all of them to vote their heart before God because at the end of the day however you vote is between the Lord and yourself. Amen. Secondly, trying to vote on the president office based upon the next selected Supreme Court justice is a common strategy among many. The system was setup to allow the current president to make the selection (nomination) and that justice would be appointed after confirmation by the United States Senate. Since both the current president and the current Senate have a key role in the selection it is better to just do all that you can to put (vote) the right people in office. However, we do not believe in the obstruction of duty. Thus, it is not right to have current elected officials that some may disagree with be the reason to do nothing at all with selecting the next Supreme Court Justice. Since we vote for the President and certain Senators we try not to pay too much attention to what might happen in the future because it is certain the only timeframe you need to make a decision on is right now. Remember today is the day of salvation now is the time for faith. Amen! We hope this article was helpful in highlighting a couple of principles in the word of God when it comes to selecting a good leader. Yes, this article did point out both what not to do and what to do by stating. Don’t think voting a certain platform clears you from having any responsibility about the person you are selecting because the true emphases should be on the person more than the platform. Also we mentioned to be good fruit inspectors of love and words with corresponding actions so that you can readily identify character. Finally, in his love, would ask the question, “Where is the Love?” because so many believers just hate the other candidate even though they shouldn’t. Why? Because God doesn’t hate them so neither should we hate them. Plus, most people who vote never even personally meet the Presidential candidates face to face so there is no way you can know them very well. Unless you are foolish enough to believe everything you hear on the media and count that as truth. We believe all Christians should be smarter than that by believing solely upon the Name of Jesus, the Love of our Father God and the undisputable truth of the Holy Bible because if you don’t follow God’s Word and His Love in your selection, we doubt very seriously you are following God in this election. Amen!