Following Christ’s Way in a Complex World

Politics is a messy business. How do we as Christians navigate our broken system with only imperfect candidates? I have lived and worked in evangelical settings all my life, and one of the lessons I learned earliest from my evangelical upbringing was that a person’s character mattered more than their gifts, accomplishments, or abilities. Yet when I listen to political discourse among evangelicals, character is often skipped over as secondary or inessential to what goals the candidate can help achieve. I understand the urge, but I simply don’t believe this is a position that can be upheld biblically.

First, how do we judge a candidate’s character? Here’s a biblical test to help. In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul gives two lists. The first is the characteristics of those who live “by the flesh” (a shorthand for our baser instincts): “sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (5:9-21). The second is the fruits of those who live by the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23). Now, here’s the question: As you look at these two lists, which better describes each candidate?

I have heard from many people that though they don’t like a candidate’s character, they believe that what they might be able to accomplish politically is worth the tradeoff—that the worthy ends justify the unworthy means. However, my counterargument is simple: As people who believe that the Word of God is our highest authority, we must recognize that the Bible’s overarching narrative insists that the way we do something is as important as the result. The means matter just as much as the end.

Two biblical stories demonstrate this truth. In the first from the book of Numbers, the Hebrew people are reaching the end of their 40-year sojourn through the wilderness when they run out of water. Moses and his brother Aaron bring the laments of the people before God, and God, in turn, gives Moses very specific instructions: “Take [your] staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water” (Numbers 20:8, NIV, italics mine). He is to speak to the rock, trusting God to provide the water.

Instead, Moses gathers the people, snarls his displeasure at them (“Listen, you rebels!”), and strikes the rock twice in anger. Water did indeed flow from the rock, but God was displeased, going so far as to refuse Moses’s future entry into the Promised Land. How is this fair? The people were dying of thirst, and Moses obtained water for them! What more worthy end could be achieved? Who cares how it was accomplished? God, apparently. God cared not only about the result—slaking the people’s thirst—but how that result was obtained. God wanted Moses to speak in trust; but Moses struck in disbelief, and what was done in distrust and anger was done unworthily, no matter the outcome. The means matter just as much as the end.

In the second story from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus finds himself on his own sojourn through the wilderness. During a 40-day fast, the devil appears to him and tries to tempt him away from his mission. The devil first attempts to play on Jesus’s physical hunger, goading him to use his power to turn stone into bread. Jesus refuses to take the bait. The devil then suggests that Christ prove his divinity by throwing himself off a cliff and commanding his angels to catch him. Jesus again rejects the devil’s overtures. Saving the most difficult for last, the devil finally takes him up a high mountain peak overlooking all the kingdoms of the world and promises, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9).

Here is the real temptation because it contains a worthy end. Wouldn’t the rule of Jesus over all the kingdoms be good news? Don’t we want the Prince of Peace to end war and violence? the Great Physician to heal our broken and divided nations? the Messiah to save all who are held in physical or spiritual captivity by the powers that be? All Jesus would have to do to claim political supremacy and enact his just and righteous agenda is bow down to the devil. Maybe he could even do it halfheartedly—just plug his nose and cross his fingers as he lowers his head ever so slightly, convincing himself that he was doing it for the greater good. But Jesus again rejects the devil’s advances, declaring, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10). Christ reaffirms that how we do something matters just as much as what we accomplish, and as the rest of the Gospels demonstrate, Christ’s reign will be realized not by lording over people but serving them, not by grasping power but by freely giving it up. The means matter just as much as the end.

Politics are indeed inherently messy, and there is never a perfect candidate, especially if you are committed to the countercultural way of Jesus. Yet if evangelicals wish to maintain any credibility—especially as a movement that has long preached the importance of virtues like integrity, humility, and fidelity—we must not strike in distrust and anger in hopes of fulfilling our political designs. We must refuse to bow down to any candidate who demonstrates a disregard for the most basic of Christian values time and time again—even if they promise the kingdoms of the world in return. We must trust that Christian ends can only be achieved by the humble and loving means of Christ—our Way. For if we trade our Christian witness for political power, we may very well gain the world, but we will have lost our soul.