The mid-term election of 2022 is less than a week away. I think most of us get weary of the political talk, news and candidates commercials by this time in any election cycle. We cannot let this weariness become apathy or even antagonistic towards our Biblical responsibility to vote in this and every election.

Christians in America are God’s stewards of their elected representatives. We need to vote for people who hold Christian values, then observe their service to make sure they are representing us rightly.

In biblical days, people typically were “subjects” under a monarch or dictator. Christian citizens didn’t have much of an opportunity to impact their government. From that circumstance, we learn that the Bible teaches Christians to obey God above any earthly ruler. We are to be as obedient as possible to the ruling authorities when it doesn’t conflict with God’s laws. But when it does, we heed the scriptures, such as in Acts 5:29, where Peter made it clear, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

In this country we have a representative government. We elect others to represent us in government. This is where our Christian stewardship comes view. God is the owner of all things, and as His people, He made us stewards (managers). Since political representatives are responsible to the citizens for their work, it becomes our stewardship responsibility to manage this element of God’s creation according to His will. Faithful Christian citizens should vote for the candidates who best reflect biblical and moral values. If representatives are not representing us from this perspective, it is the responsibility of the Christian citizens to vote to replace them with others who will be more likely to do so.  It is worth saying here that there are no perfect candidates because there are no perfect people.

As Christians, we must take a stewardship view of how we will cast our votes in the upcoming election. Every citizen has one vote. But the motivation must be different for Christians. We don’t vote simply because the government is set up that way. We vote because we have a responsibility before God of selecting representatives who will be most faithful in carrying out particular principles God has revealed in the Bible.

This isn’t saying that Christians are to go to Washington to set up a theocracy. It is an admonition to elect the representatives who are most likely to govern in ways consistent with the principles of life and liberty which God has revealed in Scripture.

There can be many differing opinions about legislative agendas. Someone said, “Opinions are like noses: everybody has one.” With some legislative issues, even Christians may disagree. But we should never disagree about biblical, moral values. These Bible principles ought to drive the stewardship of our vote. Our highest responsibility is our stewardship given to us by God Himself. Let’s be sure that it is this Christian stewardship of our citizenship that moves us to the polls to cast our votes on Tuesday.