Tony Evans Stresses Christian Unity amid Political Division

"All points of view should start with God's point of view," Evans told CBN's PrayerLink in recent interview. Truth is God's view on any subject matter, and God has spoken endlessly in his word about politics. Of course, the most well-known passage is Romans 13 where God says that he is the author of civil government. Since he is the author of civil government, we ought to find out what he says about civil government to make sure that our definition, explanation, and application of civil government is consistent with his definition, application, and implementation of civil government."

Evans also explained his motivation for tackling politics despite its divisive nature.

"What motivated me was the chaos, confusion, and divisiveness that I was seeing among Christians where we were allowing the political landscape to inform our biblical worldview rather than our biblical worldview informing the political landscape. And whenever you see the church of Jesus Christ being divided, you have exited God from the environment. And what Christians don't understand is that our discourse has marginalized God because it has divided God's people and God will always exit illegitimate division," the pastor said.

When it comes to politicians with whom we disagree, Evans said that Christians should handle it with grace and love.

"Believers should always speak with grace," he added. "We should always speak with a spirit of love without compromising truth. But we always start with truth because that's God's perspective. We want to make biblical points, which should always be done with the spirit of humility, grace, and love."

According to CBN News, he contended that it's a love that is impartial regardless of political affiliation.

"God is not a Democrat or a Republican. He doesn't ride the backs of donkeys or elephants. So, he is the consummate independent."

Evans noted that Americans typically vote on issues connected with their own lives.

"If we were back in slavery and there were two candidates running for office and one was for abortion, but against slavery, and the other one was for slavery and against abortion, if you're a slave you may be against abortion but you're going to vote for the one who's against slavery because that is your situation in life," he explained. "People's situation in life will affect what they prioritize and what they prioritize will determine how they vote."

At the same time, he added, politics should not be prioritized above one’s Christian faith.

"When you look to politics as a solution, you have idolized that institution above the God that created it. And so, we, unfortunately, today we have Democratic and Republican Christians who are political idolaters."

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"What we're experiencing now in our culture is what I call the passive wrath of God. What we are seeing today is chaos,” Evans continued. “You can't solve what's wrong in our culture today by Air Force One. Second Chronicles 15, verse three to six says, 'There was chaos in the land for God troubled them with every kind of distress.' If God is your problem, it doesn't matter who you elect. If God is your problem, you better get that straight."

Ultimately, Evans shared the importance of biblical unity before politics.

You should pray for local and national leaders that they will be influenced to make the right decisions," he said. "But prior to praying for them, we need to pray for us. If we are not getting right, if we are not unified, if we are not biblio-centric in our focus, if we are not applying consistently God's regulations, guidelines, and governances in where we live and the influence we have, that we can't expect the culture to change."

"To put it another way, until God can fix the church, he won't fix the nation," Evans said.

Image credit: ©Getty Images/Cooper Neill/Stringer

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.