Even when Peter chastised Jesus for saying that He was going to suffer and die, and did so out of a kind of innocence/ignorance, Jesus’ response was direct. Of course, Peter’s rebuke was based on what he perceived to be the cause that he was following. It was founded in his wishful thinking.

Peter, as I’m sure we could say of most of the other disciples and the throngs of people that followed after Jesus, had his own agenda. He had his own idea of what a “messiah” needed to do. He had his own idea of what they needed to be saved from. He probably looked around himself as we do today and made a judgment call on what the solution was for all that ails of the nation. Peter was influenced by the very same thing that we are today, though on a much lower tech scale.

Jesus’ response to Peter, while seemingly harsh given what Peter said, was telling of the difference in their thought processes and their life view. In Mark 16:23 Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” I’m sure that Peter was stunned by His rebuke. I would suspect that it wasn’t until after Pentecost that he began to understand what Jesus meant and why He said it so forcefully.

As I thought about this scenario, I wondered if Jesus was drawing on the Isaiah passage. Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” Of late, this verse seems to be ever before me. Everyplace I turn, I’m faced with similar situations that Peter faced in his day. More than anything we are confronted daily with the opportunity to think like Peter or like Jesus.

In the political arena, we are constantly faced with taking sides. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, etc. We are asked either directly or indirectly what we are, who do we side with? Are you this or are you that? I believe that Peter responded to Jesus out of this mindset. Sadly, many of us still have that mindset. We are still fighting over, “merely human concerns.”

The right and the left argue in a way that use insults and persuasive arguments to try and influence the problem of the day. Christians find themselves, either consciously or subconsciously aligning with a group or cause or philosophy that is founded in the wisdom of this world. Jesus would have none of that. John 12:49-50 says, “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

We have been so influenced by the world around us that we have fallen prey to one of the great tools of the enemy; compartmentalization. We talk in a “spiritual” sounding way in church or when we talk specifically about the things of God. However, when we move into the political realm, we switch gears and sound less like followers of God and more like the world that we live in, even advocating for the secular solutions that we know are mere band aids at best on the sucking wound that is laying before us.

We are bombarded daily with solutions based in the wisdom of the world. We are hypnotized by the sheer volume of information that is set before us. It seems to me that we (the church, particularly) have lost sight of seeking God’s purpose and direction just as Peter did.

I think most assume that God wants the United States to be as it once was, as if to say that it once was as He would have it to be. While I would agree that there have been times and segments of our society that have been more “in tune” with the principles that God has set forth for us in His Word, there has never been a Christian nation. Again, while many of the foundational principles this country was founded on were, in fact, taken from Scripture, still, it was tainted by fallen man and will always be tainted this side of heaven.

It is a false premise to hold that if we could only get God back into our schools or the Ten Commandments placed on the walls of our courthouses or get a particular party into office, that we will once again be that “Christian” nation. To put this in medical terms, we have witnessed the symptoms and have come to the wrong diagnosis. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The world we live in is the domain of the enemy. Now, I don’t fully understand how much power he has or exactly how that works. I only know that God has allowed Satan to have influence in this world and that we are susceptible to that influence. Because of this vulnerability we need be vigilant every moment to even have a chance to know what God’s ways and thoughts are.

God’s ways are to be sought as a means to know God, not to save a nation. The effects this has on our nation is academic. We fall farther and farther away from God when we spend any of our thoughts and time giving credence to the wisdom of the world. God is not a Republican/Conservative. God is not a Democrat/Liberal. God is not even a Libertarian. If any of these groups have ideas based on the wisdom of God, great. But, we are not to align ourselves (take their names) with them. We preach Christ. We know that there is only one hope for the world, and that is in Jesus.

I Corinthians 3:3-4, 18 says, “…for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.”

Will you alienate yourself from a Democrat because you call yourself a Republican? Will you alienate yourself from a Republican because you call yourself a Democrat? If so, how open do you think that person from the other party would be to hear what you have to say about the Gospel of Christ? No matter how much of the policies of either party are implemented, the illness of this world has only one cure.

It’s time for the church to take control, not of the nation, but of the conversation. “For our struggle is not against… the rulers of this world…” Don’t get drawn into false arguments that go nowhere. Don’t allow your personal thoughts and feeling to take over what God intends for your conversations. Don’t allow your flesh to do the arguing. Don’t give Jesus a reason to say to you, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Now is the time to ask the most important question. “What are the concerns of God?”

To be continued…