VOTE 1: JESUS
Voting for the first time in this year's Aussie election?
The other day, I was door-knocked by my local Federal member of Parliament.
Local MP: Hi! I'm your local member of Parliament! I’m sure you’ve heard there’s an election coming up. I'm going around the neighbourhood asking people about what they think will be important.
Me: Uh...
I didn't really know what should be important!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or in a different country), you’d know that Australia’s going to have an election soon. Maybe this is your first election. Or maybe you're just interested about what God has to say, in his word, about how this country should be run. Or maybe you're like me, thrown in the deep end and trying to get something to hold onto.
As Christians, the Bible is our ultimate guide on how to live for God. It tells us how we should live in so many different aspects in life. So, I wondered, does the Bible tell us who to vote for? Not exactly – but it does give us a few pointers. These articles look at the main things I’ll be thinking about before election day. Maybe they’ll give you some pointers, too.
Articles in this series
Here's an overview of what we'll be covering:
1. Voting and the gospel (This article)
2. Is Australia a Christian country? Is the Bible relevant to law-making?
3. What do we have governments for?
4. What’s important in looking for the leader of our country?
5. The election is over; now what?
Voting and the gospel
Jesus said time and time again to his apostles that their job was to tell the gospel to the world (John 16:5-15; Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 1:8).
We follow the apostle's example by continuing to proclaim God's kingdom (e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:1, Matthew 4:17).
God wants all people to be saved, and people are saved by hearing the gospel (1 Timothy 2:4; Romans 10:14). It makes sense that we shouldn’t make our job more difficult. For example, we should be aware of any policies that will restrict the freedoms we currently have to proclaim the gospel. An example of a policy that could hinder the proclamation of the gospel would be totally removing scripture classes from schools.
In the next article, we’ll be looking at whether Australia is a Christian country. Should Australia be a Christian country? Is the Bible relevant to law-making? Read the next article now...
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