Staying Unified When You Vote for Different People

Jim and Emily care about politics, but they care even more about their family and their local church. The heat of a congressional or presidential campaign feels threatening to both. They asked me, “How do we maintain a love that lasts when we see that our nation, churches, and even families are being torn apart over political disagreement?”

Heart Work

First, Jim and Emily can regularly take the temperature of their own hearts. Eighteenth-century writer William Law provided a helpful paradigm when he identified the three marks of the “natural man”—resistance, rage, and darkness—and compared them to the three marks of a Spirit-filled believer: unity, joy, and happiness.

If you are marked by

·      Resistance

·      Rage

·      Darkness

you’re in an unhealthy place spiritually. Christians who worship a beautiful and loving God have no business remaining in this condition.

Healthy Christians are marked by

·      Unity

·      Joy

·      Happiness

Even when they debate and disagree, they don’t lose their desire for unity, they are marked by joy, not rage, and they have a happiness instead of malice and anger. This is a healthy Christian disposition.

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