I am a sports fan. I admit it. I also admit that my mood can rise and fall with the success, or lack thereof, of my favorite teams. Some of you (many of you?) can relate to this. When my team wins, I feel good and feel that life is good. I feel upbeat and positive. On the flip side, losing can bring unhappiness and even a sour mood.
I know this is not healthy. And in my better moments, I realize something else: losing is often better for me than winning. Why? Because losing reminds me, in case I have forgotten, of what’s really important. It grounds me and keeps me from becoming too dependent on lesser things for my sense of well-being. It brings me back to reality. It reminds me not to put my hope in the activities of people, who really aren’t in a position to be the objects of my hope.
Not that I prefer losing. I would rather win, of course. It’s not that winning itself is bad. After all, the same lessons I mentioned in the previous paragraph should be with us at all times, including winning times. But the point is this: I’ve found it’s often harder to keep those truths in focus while winning than it is while losing. In other words, if we’re not careful, winning can be deceptive. And when that happens, we have a problem.
“I’ve found it’s often harder to keep those truths in focus while winning than it is while losing.”
I was thinking about this in relation to a just-completed presidential election in the United States. Many in our country are feeling happy, perhaps even euphoric, because their chosen candidate won. Many others are feeling sad because their chosen candidate lost. Please don’t misunderstand: this article is not suggesting that those who feel they were on the “winning side” in the election should wish they were on the “losing side” instead. But what I am suggesting is that Christians need to be very careful to avoid what we might call the “pitfalls” of winning. These are deceptions we can easily fall into if we allow ourselves to get carried away by political victories. To avoid these pitfalls, we need to keep in mind several important truths.
1. Government is no substitute for the church.
The role of government has been established by God (Romans 13:1-7). This is why we are commanded to submit to authorities and give proper respect and honor to those who serve in government. Without question, government has an important function in human society. But government never has been and never will be a substitute for the church.
The church is composed of all of God’s redeemed people. The church has a mandate to proclaim the saving gospel of Christ to the entire world of humanity. The church has been equipped, through the presence and gifts of the Spirit of God, to help believers grow to maturity in Christ. The church reaches out to friend and foe alike to share the love of Christ through sacrificial service. The church boldly speaks the truth of Christ to a world which is spiritually wayward, thus functioning as a prophetic voice in society. The church does all of these things because the church is the body of Christ on earth.
Let us never expect any other human organization, including government, to do the work which only the church is equipped to do. Let us never be deceived by what we perceive as “governmental success” so that we grow complacent, or worse, downright lazy as a church. Let us never hand over the role of the church to any other body. And let us never grow weary in doing what God has called us to do.
“Let us never expect any other human organization, including government, to do the work which only the church is equipped to do.”
For almost two thousand years the church has existed on earth in all kinds of human environments, under different kinds of governmental models. Some of those models may be better than others in fulfilling the responsibilities of government. But what is not debatable is that the church, and only the church, has the message that is the hope of the world. That truth will never change, no matter what kind of government is in power or what is going on in government.
2. Human leaders are no substitute for the Savior.
This truth should go without saying. But perhaps it needs to be said, just to be on the safe side. After all, it is so easy for us humans to be swayed by human charisma and human acclaim. History is full of notable political leaders whose accomplishments (for better or worse) have gone down in the record books. There are statues and monuments and buildings all over the world attesting to human achievement. And if we forget Scripture’s warnings against human pride, we do so to our own peril.
God takes pains throughout his Word to warn us against the fundamental evil of human pride. Beginning in the Garden of Eden (“we will be like God”), pride has destroyed many an individual and more than one entire society. The modern era of humanity is sick with the disease of pride, and our modern political scene reflects this sickness clearly.
In my own country, the United States, the rhetoric of political leaders on all sides reflects our pride. Speeches are full of the idea that we humans, as a nation, are going to rise to the occasion and solve every conceivable problem that is facing us. We will do better than any who have gone before us. We will do it because we have the courage, the ability, the resolve, and the resources. We will do it because we are great. Folks, this is not a partisan problem; this is a human problem.
“In my own country, the United States, the rhetoric of political leaders on all sides reflects our pride.”
So, if an election has left you basking in the wake of political victory, here is a gentle reminder. Let us not be carried away and forget what we have always known: no human leader is going to fix all our problems. Only the Savior can do that.
3. Man’s agendas are no substitute for the agenda of God’s kingdom.
It can be easy to get swept up in the promises of political agendas. This is connected, of course, to our pride problem discussed above. This is not to say that people and political parties cannot make positive contributions to society. It is not to say that they can do nothing to help improve the lives of our citizens. It is simply to recognize the reality that there are limitations to what can be done and limitations to what will be done, especially if God is not in the picture.
Beyond the reality of limitations, we need to look carefully at the content of political agendas. It’s a complicated matter, of course, because political platforms are a complex web of ideas. Some of those ideas are more consistent with the will of God as revealed in Scripture, and some are less. What’s more, ideas within the same platform are not always consistent with one another. I’m sure we have all observed in political discourse a failure to “connect the dots,” in which ideas are put forward which contradict other ideas (even within the same speech!), or a viewpoint is espoused which is inconsistent with the alleged ideals of that very candidate or party. In any case, it can be a somewhat bewildering maze.
Once again, the lesson for us is that political victory should not blind us to the limitations and weaknesses of human agendas. Certainly, there is much good that can be done, and we as Christians should support those political positions which reflect the values of God’s kingdom. But at the end of the day, if we content ourselves with the agenda of humans, we will fall short of what God has in mind.
“Political victory should not blind us to the limitations and weaknesses of human agendas.”
God’s agenda for his kingdom is far bigger, far more magnificent, and far more all-encompassing than anything humans can imagine. Only the kingdom of God can establish the desired measure of justice, righteousness, and goodness within human society, in accordance with the very nature of God himself. Only the kingdom of God is leading on to the establishment of a new heaven and new earth, in which the will of God will be done perfectly.
In the meantime, whether we win or lose politically, let us work to advance God’s kingdom agenda with discernment, clarity, and consistency. To that end, accept no substitutes. Make sure you align yourself with the agenda of God, whether or not it agrees with human agendas.
4. What is temporary is no substitute for what is permanent.
One of the most powerful earthly rulers of all time was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The book of Daniel tells the story of how this great monarch was humbled by God. But before that, in chapter 2 we have the account of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in which he saw a great statue, the head of which was made of gold. According to Daniel’s interpretation, the head of gold represented the king himself. Apparently, Nebuchadnezzar heard that part very clearly and got carried away by the idea, because shortly thereafter he ordered a great image of gold to be built and gave the command that all his subjects should bow down before it, as related in chapter 3.
What he may not have heard clearly enough was the rest of Daniel’s interpretation. In the dream, the other parts of the statue (made of silver, bronze, iron, and clay) represented other kingdoms which would follow Babylon on the world scene. Yes, even Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon wouldn’t last forever. And then came the stone “cut out by no human hand” (Daniel 2:34), a stone which smashed all those other kingdoms to pieces and became a great mountain that filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:35). In explaining the meaning of this, Daniel said,
“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44, ESV)
“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.”
This is a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ, which unlike all human kingdoms, will not simply be one more in a succession of temporary kingdoms. Many people in history have fallen for the deception that somehow the winners of this or that contest, this or that election, would be around forever. But it doesn’t last. It never does. Rulers come and rulers go. Only Christ’s kingdom is forever.
None of the things mentioned in this article are new. It’s just that we can easily forget them, especially when you’re in the aftermath of winning. In my lifetime, there have been eighteen presidential elections. Some have turned out to my liking, some not so much. (The first was when I was two years old; I didn’t really care.) I’ve experienced a bit of the “thrill of victory” and the “agony of defeat.” But I hope that along the way, I’ve learned a bit about keeping the important things in focus. Identifying with Christ, and Christ alone, will keep us from becoming victims of the pitfalls of winning.
