During this insane election season, I’ve heard countless conversations about “How would Jesus vote?” or “What does the Bible say that addresses our situation?” or “What would Jesus’ advice be to the church today?”
All great conversations to have as we struggle together, in community, to figure out how as believers we should be responding to the current times.
This morning, I was studying Colossians and it hit me:
The Apostle Paul would give this exact same advice to the church in America today.
Ready for this? Straight out of Colossians 3.
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Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
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Bear with one another, forgive each other.
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Whoever has a complaint against anyone, forgive them just as Jesus forgave you.
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Love one another.
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Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.
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Be thankful.
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Do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
It doesn’t get more applicable than that, my friends. In all of his letters to the early Christian churches, Paul urges them over and over and over (I’m paraphrasing, of course):
Be thankful! Chose joy! Yes, life is hard. There are so many reasons to be anxious, fearful, depressed, even angry. But we get to choose an attitude of joy and thankfulness because our citizenship is in heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God!
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Col 3:2)
A lot of us have not been compassionate, loving, kind, gentle, humble, patient, or forgiving of those who have offended us (or God forbid, voting for a candidate we think is positively evil). We have not let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. And we are certainly not living in a state of thanksgiving.
Let’s heed the Apostle Paul’s advice to the believers in Colossae as if he had addressed them to the church in America today. What a different church and country we might become!
