THE CHRISTIAN POLITICIAN

I often I'm lost between two worlds. Being part of the Church and being Nigerian. Because the church clearly points out the dirt in our politics and in our fallen world. The question then is what is our role? How can we change the world without being leaders?

We are the light of the world, the salt in the earth, we are the ‘Life’ of the world. So our thirst for things to be better wherever we find ourselves is what makes us Christians.We do know however, that we will never have the world that we want till Christ comes. But till He comes we have the responsibility to uphold righteousness, justice and equity.The church has often failed in this regard, till God intervenes again and again and shows us that we are only a shadow of the perfect world to come.

I’ll take my cue from Solomon, he said ‘The words of the Preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem’ some interpretations put it like this ‘I the Preacher, son of David, was King in Jerusalem’

In saying this He recognised that He was First and foremost a preacher, then the son of His Father and then King of Jerusalem.

How does this apply to us today? We Christians are First Preachers.

We Preach a Message, the Gospel.

The Gospel is the love of God for man. We preach Hope, Faith, Love. We preach Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Meekness and Temperance. Our Gospel is that in the midst of a world with changing vanities, and that these virtues should and need to remain.

So to any Christian who preaches doom for the world, we are missing our message because the truth is this world will get better, Christ will reign in this world for 1000 years.

Our message is that God will however reign His wrath on those who will go against the principles of Christ that make the world a better place, Our message is that men should repent from their evil ways and turn to Righteousness, Justice and Equity. Our message is that we cannot rule ourselves that we need our creator to be able to make the world the better place we want and will find.

However, we must first become citizens of that world by becoming a people saved, sanctified and consecrated to Righteousness, Justice and Equity. A World with peace and Joy cannot have attitudes that are contrary to the teachings and dictates of Christ.

So our political stance is that we will not reward corruption, we will not pardon the enrichment of one to the detriment of many, that we will continue to work to make Nigeria and the world a better place, that we will work towards having a world where we can all be at peace, a world that Christ will inhabit.

Now, there are many who will not agree with our creed, who will take a stand against righteousness, peace, equity, justice and joy. Yes, there are many of them, who for their selfish interest will not believe our message, who will call our Christ a Fraud, who will say that there can be no better world, who will say it is not possible for a man to be perfect, holy and uphold all these things that I talk about, there are many who will say they are a part of us but will not chase after righteousness, holiness and purity, they are the ones we must convince and if they will not bulge, they will face the wrath of our God in the world to come because the world to come cannot have and will not have the injustices of this world.

So however, we try to fulfil this creed, by running for political offices or not. Our message remains simple.

That God is our creator and it is only in Him through Christ that we can have the world that every man wishes for. He makes us better men so that we can build and inhabit a better world.

No religion, no philosophy can offer this. This is what we call all men to. Our Hope.