Should Christians Vote? What the Bible Says

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions, either related to our recent sermons or about Christianity or about what the Bible has to say about some subject. And this week’s question is more about what does the Bible have to say about some subject, related to kind of a current event in our country.

Very soon we’ll have an election in the U.S. And so the question comes in, should Christians vote? Do we need to? Are we supposed to? Is it okay to vote? Should we remove ourselves from voting? What should be our relationship with government in terms of voting? And certainly, if you were here when we were doing our Romans series, Romans 13, we talked about there are some Christians that take the approach that they kind of remove themselves from the scene.

They live off in their own community. They try not to use any government services whatsoever. They don’t participate in military, they don’t vote, whatever they can do to kind of exclude themselves, live by themselves. They do that. However, in Scripture, I think we see more involvement than that.

In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah’s writing to the exiles about how they should live in terms of the government that’s over them. And he says, seek the welfare of the city. Pray for it. Be involved. Don’t totally exclude yourself from what is going on. And I’d say, more deeply than just not removing ourselves is if it really — anytime in Scripture that somebody is given leadership, it is a type of stewardship.

Luke 12 is, to whom much is given, much is required. And so if you’ve been given leadership, you can look at when Daniel was given a position of leadership in the Old Testament, he takes that seriously. Involve yourself in it. Esther, when she’s in a position of authority, it’s her responsibility to do something, right?

And so, kind of whatever influence that God has given you, and you may not have chosen it, just like Daniel didn’t choose to be in that position or Esther didn’t choose to be in that position, or if you were born as a king, you didn’t choose that, but you have been given that.

You have a responsibility to do something with it, to manage it well, to try to add flourishing into the situation. And in our country, at least on paper, the people are in charge. It is “We the People.” It is consent of the governed is who is in charge. And so we, if we are in this country and we have the right to vote, we have been given a responsibility.

We have been given influence. And so I would take that seriously. Yes, don’t abdicate from your role of leadership. Actually, seriously, know what’s going on because you have been kind of given this mantle of leadership collectively with everyone else. And so, figure out the issues, figure out the candidates, pray about it, go and vote.

Exercise what we call here a civic duty. And so, yes, I absolutely believe that Christians should vote. I know probably many Christians are not doing that, maybe because they’re so frustrated with one side or the other and they think they don’t make a difference. But I can tell you for sure, if you don’t vote, you will absolutely not make a difference.

And then if all of us vote, it will. It can. It has before. Christians involving themselves in the political process is a huge part of why slavery was ended around the world. It’s a huge part of the Civil Rights Movement in our country. Even though there’s Christians on other sides of both of those issues, there were Christians involved.

And so we want Christians involved. It’s got to be better, right? I mean, if Romans 13 says the government has authority to kind of institute God’s wrath, reward good, punish evil, these kind of things, we want Christians deciding what is going to happen. Christians who are praying about it, trying to add flourishing to the world.

So, yes, absolutely, vote.