Is There Separation Between Secular and Spiritual?
So I was watching television last night and the next thing I knew I was yelling at it. Has that ever happened to you? You are calm and then the next thing you know you feel your blood begin to boil and you are attempting to engage the people on television in some sort of debate! As I said, that happened to me last night and I haven’t quite calmed down yet.
So what was I watching? I was watching a rerun of the Beverly Hillbillies and…
Ok, just kidding. I was watching Hannity and Colmes on FOX and they were debating whether or not a person’s religious background should influence their political and social outlooks on life. There was a dude on there, I can’t remember his name, that said that Christians in this country should learn to separate their religious beliefs from their political beliefs. This infuriated me—and I have to vent!
The truth is that when a person meets Jesus everything changes. Jesus never intended Himself to merely be a “get out of hell free” card. As I have heard it said, He didn’t just come to get us out of hell and into heaven—He came to get Himself out of heaven and into us. AND when that happens, literally every aspect of our lives will be effected—not just certain areas.
I was reading John chapter five this morning—which totally goes along with what I am writing about. In John five (actually, throughout the whole book of John) Jesus says that He wants to give us LIFE. He never says, “I want to influence an aspect of your life,” or, “I want to be a part of SOME of your life.” He says, “I am life!” And so once again, for someone to make a decision to be a follower of Christ means every aspect of our lives are completely surrendered to Him.
This means who we date, how we respond to our spouse, how we raise our kids, how we handle our money—and yes, even how we view the political and social climate of the world we live in. Remember this—Jesus isn’t impressed when we throw Him a bone by merely coming to church on Sunday—He desires complete surrender from us 24/7/365.
In a nut shell this is what I am saying…I am tired of people (and the media) trying to convince followers of Jesus that there is a dividing line between the secular and the spiritual. If Jesus lives inside of you then He is not a part of your life—HE IS YOUR LIFE.
The goal of our churches should be to teach this with passion because so many believe otherwise. I do not think we should tell people how to vote or to kick them out if they voted for a particular person; however, I do believe it is the churches responsibility to teach that there should NOT ever be separation between how we live on Sunday and how we operate our lives during the rest of the week.
Remember this—Jesus didn’t die a horrible death on a cross so we could merely limit Him to the areas of our lives where we feel as if He can do “the least amount of damage.” He died so He could change how we live…and that includes everything—including our political and social agendas.
Just a thought!