One of the great challenges of being a “hearer and doer” of the Christian faith is praying for our “enemies,” especially in America’s ongoing culture wars. A powerful tool of spiritual and political warfare is to demonize political opponents. It is an ever-present pernicious fruit of the Fall of Man and our sinful hearts to view other human beings made in the image of God as less than fully human when we perceive them to be a threat to our religious beliefs, the moral values and fabric of our communities, and the security and well-being of our families and nation.

In today’s environment, our political dialogue and the ability to civilly interact with those of different political beliefs is exponentially more difficult because of polarized and hyper-partisan media that reinforces the human cognitive bias to seek information that confirms what we believe and discredit information that contradicts our cherished beliefs. This leads to a thinking and reasoning process magnifying the weaknesses of the “other,” minimizing or ignoring their strengths while doing the opposite for “our” side. 

This is not the approach of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who modeled humility of reasoning in conflict situations. In Matthew 7:3-5 we are to remove the log from our own eye first. What is this log? This log is our tendency to judge and condemn others using human standards of logic and reasoning that only sees the surface. Unless we recognize our tendency to magnify the weaknesses of others and minimize and ignore our own, we are hypocritical adding fuel to the fires of destructive conflict and hyper-partisanship. The only winners in today’s politics are the satanic and demonic forces of destruction fueling the pride of all sides. 

What is one practical step that we can all take according to Scripture that will help us see things from the Lord’s non-partisan perspective? First, we must recognize and reject labels of tribal identification as Jesus is not a republican, democrat, or an independent, but the all-powerful, all-knowing and all-seeing Creator of the universe bridging the gap between this fallen world and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus sees that no political party or philosophy, either in letter or spirit, is consistent with the eternal standards of godly biblical righteousness (see Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14: 1-3, Psalm 53:1-3). 

Secondly, we need to honor the Apostle Paul’s admonitions in 1 Timothy 2:2 (The Living Bible) to pray in this way for kings and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quietness, spending our time in godly living and thinking much about the Lord. By praying for the president of the other party irrespective of how much we dislike their policies or character, we please God (1 Timothy 2:3) demonstrating humility and softness of heart. I personally have been challenged by my own beliefs, passions, and strong emotions in praying for presidents that I vehemently disagreed with and viewed as a threat to our nation and its moral fabric. However, when we pray, we surrender our control and recognize God’s sovereignty in changing those in power as the Lord directs the king’s thoughts (Proverbs 21:1). As 1 Timothy 2:5 states, God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, himself man, is between them to bring them together. Let us challenge ourselves every day to pray for those in authority and please God!

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Scripture is quoted from The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.