I need to remind you of something

I need to remind you all of something. I am noticing a trend, not just online, but offline as well, of people of faith who are starting to behave like those who have no faith. In particular, I am noticing people of faith show hostility and contempt for others in the same way those others show. Many argue it is time to behave just like them.

So I need to remind you of something you might have a hard time dealing with.

They Win. We Lose.

At least, from their perspective and ours, they’re going to win way more often than us. The rich, secular progressives are going to do far better than most of us. The people who leave God behind are going to shine on the big stage. Yes, true, the big stage is going to burn with them on it, but if you don’t have an eternal perspective, we are reaching a point where you are going to have a harder and harder time.

Psalm 73 is genuinely my favorite psalm.

Asaph wrote that psalm. He was one of the three singers charged by King David with overseeing music in the House of the Lord. Asaph wrote the psalm after becoming envious of the success of the people who were dismissive of God.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.

Psalm 37:3-10 (ESV)

The wicked prosper. They are well fed. They seem to have few troubles. They are prideful and can be violent. They are boastful and the people love them and love their behavior.

This is not a portrait of the left in America. There are just as many on the right these days who fit that profile. This is the portrait of the wicked and they transcend politics and partisanship. They are in online celebrity cultures of the left and right. They are in offline culture. They are in the church and some are in the pulpit.

They lack humility and possess a prideful certainty. They have become self-salvivic. Asaph was jealous of them. They seemed to be so put together, so sharp, so brazen, and so popular with their crowd.

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

Psalm 73:16:19 (ESV)

There is a tempting cry in politics these days from both sides that each side should behave as they perceive the other — ruthless, brazen, unethical, and out to win for the sake of winning.

It is easy to get pulled into that mindset and separate your faith on Sunday from your faith the rest of the week. But you cannot be a Christian on Sunday and a conservative the rest of the week. Christ trumps all, including your politics.

You must understand that the prideful, Godless successful people are going to be popular and overperform. They’ll look like they’re winning and they just might win.

You must also understand this — it is an act of God’s mercy because this world is very literally the worst you will ever have it, but for them it is the very best they will ever have. God is merciful even to them.

The solution then is not to give up and say the fix is in, they’re going to win. The solution, my friends, is to remember to love your neighbor. Engage in politics. Be a light. Be a witness. Be a voice for the voiceless and a champion for righteousness and justice. Do not be disappointed when you fail because you will fail to those of whom Asaph was envious. But your failure now is your success later. Their success now is the only success they’ll have eternally.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 73:27-28 (ESV)