We’ve Been Given a Stewardship

Dr. Mohler is an author, commentator, and current president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. We sat down with Dr. Mohler at last year’s National Religious Broadcaster convention to discuss the Christian’s civic responsibilities. Below is an excerpt from our discussion. You may watch the full conversation here.

What do you say to the Christian who doesn’t vote because they don’t truly trust that God will shift the direction of our nation?

I think it's important for us to understand that the key biblical category here is stewardship. We're given the stewardship of influence. And in our constitutional system of government, we're given the stewardship of a vote, which means, that the only question is whether our stewardship is faithful or unfaithful. Are we being good stewards or are we failing in stewardship? And this is where, for Christians, not voting is voting. It's just unfaithfulness.

What do you say to the Christian who distances himself from politics because it is too dirty?

Wherever you find a concentration of power, money, and opportunity, you're going to find a concentration of sin, both in opportunity and in reality. So Christians are supposed to be a people unsurprised when politics turns out to be dirty, but on the other hand, we're called to be salt and light in a world that desperately needs salt and light. If it were not getting ready to stink, it would not need salt and light.

And so, we’re just the people who aren't surprised by this. We're disgusted by it. We're outraged by it. And not only that, we hold to a holy and righteous God who is the One who created us moral beings. So we know the outrage is not just an emotion, it's real. It should propel us to uphold righteousness and justice and vote for those who uphold righteousness and justice.

The other thing is we need to recognize there are consequences to failing in our political stewardship. That is, things go from bad to worse and they go from worse to still worse. By the time a lot of Christians get involved, we're way, way down a slide. That doesn't mean it's not our responsibility to jump in at any moment. But it is a lot easier to come up with structures that prevent something [from] being broken than putting together a committee to try to glue it back together after it's broken.

What is one thing every Christian voter needs to keep in mind right now?

I just want to remind Christians of the twofold dimension of the Christian faith. On the one hand, ultimately, all that matters is the Kingdom of Christ. It's visible right now in Christ’s people, [and] it will come in its fullness. According to the biblical promise, every eye will be dry, every tear will be wiped away. The redeemed will be with the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ will reign with His saints forever. So that's first. And in that sense, we can lose anything in this world and not lose anything.

On the other hand, Jesus has not yet come to inaugurate His kingdom in its fullness. And that means that God's sovereign plan is that this time in this world and this experience will mean something. We've been given an opportunity. We don't know how long this opportunity lasts. We've been given an opportunity as Christians. We need to maximize every stewardship. We need to be faithful in every dimension, because even as our ultimate citizenship is in a heavenly kingdom, God, for His own reasons, for His glory, has left us in this earthly kingdom.

But we've got to be as much His people in the earthly kingdom as we are in the heavenly Kingdom. And that's what keeps me in this. I hope to encourage other Christians to stay in the battle as well.

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My Faith Votes—is a nonpartisan movement that motivates, equips and activates Christians in America to vote in every election, transforming our communities and influencing our nation with biblical truth. By partnering with national faith leaders, My Faith Votes provides resources to help Christians Pray, Think, and Act to create an America where God is honored in the public square.

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