Do Christians want power?

Do Christians want power?  What kind of question is that?  Look around.  Of course Christians want power.  Check out the Republican Party.  Witness the strange almost worship-like adoration of Donald Trump by so many Evangelical Christians.  They want power.  So why does Scot McKnight say Christians don’t want power?  And why is he right?  How, in the face of all we see, can McKnight possibly be correct when he says Christians don’t want power?

Christians don't want powerActually, both statements are correct – Christians do want power.  But also don’t want power.  It’s not really a question of whether or not Christians want power.  It’s a question of what do we mean by power.

Like I said, just look around, and we see many Christians, too many, absolutely do want political power.  And we do things we really shouldn’t be doing, as Christians, in order to get it.

Power that Christians want

For instance, do you remember what Jesus said about His Kingdom?  Hint – it’s from when He appeared before Pontius Pilate.  During His trial.

Jn 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

not of this world.  I think we’d do well to remember that.  Instead we forget.  Or ignore.  Oh – we should remember the exchange between Pilate and Jesus immediately after that as well.

Jn 18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

There’s part of the problem.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.  We cannot remember what we do not listen to.  Or ignore.  And so Christians want that political power.  And chase after it.  With the risk of ending up on the other side of truth.

We also forget, or ignore, something from the Ten Commandments.

Ex 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

And therefore we end up putting the god of political power before God.  And we “worship” the political leaders who we think give us that power.  In the process, we also put them before God.  But that’s Old Testament stuff, right?  It doesn’t apply to us in New Testament times, right?  Wrong.  And wrong.

Footnotes

  • 1
    Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

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