“There’s Room in the Kingdom for YOU
(whatever political position you hold)-Summary of Myth of a Christian Nation, Greg Boyd (one of our “Vision books” at Mercy Church)
The apostle Paul tells us we are to be “imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1). The word “imitate” in Greek literally means “to mimic.” As followers of Jesus, we are to do exactly what we see God doing: nothing more and nothing less. Paul then spells out what this “mimicking” looks like when he goes on to say, “Live in love, as Christ loved you and gave his life for you” (Eph. 5.2). So, we imitate God when we imitate Jesus, and we imitate Jesus when we love people the way Jesus loved us. More specifically, we imitate Jesus when we sacrifice for others, the way Jesus sacrificed himself for us on Calvary.
This is the kingdom of God (literally, the dome in which God is King). Where God reigns, it always looks like Jesus. This is why the Church is called “the body of Christ” in the New Testament (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13). We the people of God are to do exactly what Jesus did in his earthly body. He showed his love for all people by sacrificing for them. We are to show God’s love for all people by sacrificing for them. This is what the Christian faith is all about.
It really is that simple.
Sadly, many today have made Christianity out to be about many other things. Some people claim if
you’re “really” a Christian, you’ll “of course” vote a certain way, support a certain candidate, take a particular stand on a particular issue, etc. This is unfortunate because most political issues are ambiguous enough that sincere, intelligent and Bible-believing people can and do strongly disagree about them.Interestingly enough, neither Jesus nor any of his disciples ever thought like this. In fact, nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus or any of his followers “weigh in” on any of the many divisive political issues of their day. This doesn’t mean they didn’t have political opinions. They did – and they were very different from each other.
Matthew (a Tax Collector) and Simon (a Zealot) were much farther apart in their views about political issues than (say) a Liberal Democrat and a Conservative Republican would be today. Yet, we never read a word about which view was “better” in the Gospels. And the reason is that their widely different political views are insignificant next to the one thing they are called to do as followers of Jesus: express God’s love for others the sacrificial way God expressed his love for them.
So, if we’re thinking biblically about the kingdom of God, we have to conclude that it just doesn’t matter whether you’re a conservative “Matthew” or a liberal “Simon.” If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, committed to building the Jesus-looking Kingdom by sacrificing for others, there’s room in the kingdom
for you.”
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