“…and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8

In case anyone needs a reminder of the importance of sharing the Gospel, here it is! When Jesus returns it won’t be the cuddly, gentle, “its-all-good” Jesus of popular imagination. It will be victorious Jesus crushing every enemy and ushering in God’s righteous wrath on all who have rejected Him and rebelled against His good design for human flourishing!

Every person is naturally under God’s condemnation when left to our own devices, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) – this terrifying imagery of flaming fire and mighty angels is what we’ve each earned by our selfish, cruel, and immoral choices.

But in His love and mercy, God gave us an alternative future. God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The innocent Son of God, Jesus Christ, died for us to pay the penalty for ours sins. He was crucified on a cross, buried, and rose from the dead. His victory over sin and death gives confident hope to all who embrace and obey the gospel of Jesus. All anyone has to do to receive that hope is believe in Him, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved (Romans 10:9). If you don’t, the future is truly terrifying!

“House of David, this is what the Lord says:
Administer justice every morning,
and rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor,
or my anger will flare up like fire and burn unquenchably
because of your evil deeds.”
– Jeremiah 21:12

It’s a sad and sinful reality that many Christians today refuse to have a substantive and difficult conversation about justice. When the word justice is spoken, they deflect, reject, or shout down the speaker. This cannot be! Any Christian who doesn’t believe justice, in its many aspects, is relevant to the Gospel needs to spend more time reading the Old Testament prophets!

There are many aspects of justice relevant to our society: criminal, civil, rehabilitative, restorative, economic, political, racial, and more. Biblical justice must consider all of these because they all matter to God (He said so in the Bible!) There are many perspectives on justice. Like all human perspectives, they contain varying mixtures of truth and falsehood. As the people of God, we must not refuse to have conversations with people on these topics, especially people with whom we disagree, so that we can determine or develop a truly biblical approach to issues of injustice in our society.

Every follower of Jesus Christ needs to be deeply concerned about understanding and rectifying the injustices around them because Jesus is concerned about them. We must take seriously the cries and claims of those most vulnerable to injustice (God’s Word about injustice is invariably linked to caring for the poor, the vulnerable, and the immigrant). As challenging and uncomfortable as these conversations may be, they’re necessary. Any Christian who believes 2 Chronicles 7:14 applies to this country had better believe Jeremiah 21:12 applies!

“At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.” – Jeremiah 18:7-8

As Christians, our primary citizenship is in heaven. Nonetheless, it is biblical and appropriate to pray for and pursue what’s best for our earthly home as long as it doesn’t conflict with our Kingdom work. While we certainly cannot say whether God has decreed destruction for this country, there seems to be no shortage of disaster right now and we should take that seriously!

What’s best for any earthly nation is to turn away from evil, to reject policies and elements of culture that rebel against God’s revealed will in the Bible, and to embrace the Lord. Therefore, let us pray for an awakening in this nation, a great turning away from the false gods of self, greed, and pleasure, and a turning toward Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the hearts of parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters to be renewed in love and turn toward each other. Let us pray for the widespread embrace and practice of biblical love, kindness, justice, and mercy. Let us pray for a viral pursuit of personal holiness.

None of this is about imposing our values on others. Rather let our prayer be for hearts to truly change and with them values, priorities, words, and actions.

“This is what the Lord says:
Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.
He makes human flesh his strength,
and his heart turns from the Lord.”
– Jeremiah 17:5

Consider this a helpful reminder from God during this charged political season! There are certainly important issues being debated and every vote matters. Christians should be thoughtfully and prayerfully engaged. However, regardless of who you vote for, he or she won’t solve all the problems you imagine they will. He or she won’t cure every evil surrounding us. Likewise the other candidate, who may or may not do terrible things, won’t usher in the end of the world, because only God can do that!

Our strength and hope is in Jesus Christ. He and He alone WILL fix everything wrong with this world. His Kingdom alone will be perfectly just. When He returns, all evil will be washed away, sinners judged, and justice administered. In the meantime we must be careful stewards of the world God has given us dominion over. Nonetheless, whether you vote for the donkey or the elephant, always remember that our hope is in the Lamb. Choose Jesus the Lamb every day of your life with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” – Colossians 3:12

This is what our world and this nation desperately needs right now: millions of Christians acting like Jesus every single day!!! Paul commands us to put on the character of Christ in all our daily interactions. As followers of Jesus, we must not be content with merely having deep or enjoyable worship on Sunday mornings. We’re actually called and commanded to imitate Jesus – to be like Him in our thoughts, words, and actions.

Many of the present-day difficulties of the Western church stem from a failure of Christians to think, speak, and act like Jesus. Friends, we need to get back to basics. If Jesus is your Lord, act like Him!

We must be trying, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be compassionate toward everyone, kind in the face of unkindness, humble (i.e. not arrogant, not a know-it-all, not holier-than-thou), absolutely firm yet gentle and non-combative in our firmness, and endlessly patient with others as Jesus is endlessly patient with us.

These are the things we must fill our hearts, minds, and mouths with. To make room for them, we’re told in verse 8 to completely get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. At all times. In all places. And we can’t lie. Not on purpose and not accidentally because we failed to spend a minute fact checking the latest outrageous social media post we wanted to repost/retweet.

This is a very hard challenge, but if we’re faithful to do it, we will be obedient to our Lord and those who don’t know Christ will see and hear Him through us!