At a recent Young Leaders Conference, Cory Booker, a United States senator running for the office of the president, said this:
“And I believe, as Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things, all things, but y’all, I got to call it out. It says I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Now, Christ does not strengthen you to sit on the sidelines. Christ does not strengthen you to sit on the couch. This is not a spectator sport. Martin Luther King said it best when his era, in his moral moment, he said: We have to repent in our days and age, not just for the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people.
“And so I want to call the faith community together. Because faith without works is:
Audience: “Dead.”
Booker: “Faith without works is:
Audience: “Dead.”1
I am writing about this, not because I want to slam a political figure’s ignorance of the truth of Scripture, but to bring the attention of Christians to the misuse of it. Christians have mishandled this passage in much the same way as this senator did. Contemporary Christianity is rife with this kind of error. It is easy to identify. All that needs to be done is to read the passage in context. So, let’s do that.
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).2
Paul is not writing that he can do “all things,” so we can fill in the blank to include all activities on the earth according to our arrogant and selfish minds. It is obvious after a few seconds of thought that I cannot do “all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I can’t run 100 meters in less than nine seconds, and neither can you. I can’t become a state-licensed cardiac surgeon in two years, and neither can you. The list of things I cannot do is very long, so I won’t continue. “Christ does not strengthen you to sit on the sidelines,” Senator Booker said. To him, this passage from God’s Word simply means, “Since we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, if we get off the couch, we can win this election.” All of this, of course, has nothing to do with Jesus and very little with the Bible. The candidate is misusing Scripture to place guilt on his audience and motivate them to help his campaign.
So, what does Christ strengthen us to do according to Philippians 4? Christ strengthens us to be content in all situations, whether rich or poor, hungry or satisfied. Paul says he can suffer all these things with contentment because Jesus strengthens him.
The second misuse of Scripture is when Senator Booker told his audience that if they have faith, they will get up and get going to help him because faith without works is dead. Essentially, he said, “If you have faith, you gotta get up and get active. Otherwise your faith is dead.”
But, shouldn’t we ask, “Faith in what”?
Faith must have an object. What is the object here? I’m not sure. Faith in the senator’s cause, his election, I suppose. The senator is endeavoring to mask his pitch with religious language to reach a religious crowd. What he said makes no biblical sense at all.
We are to have faith in the Lord God who created all things, not in political leaders, or “princes”:
“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish” (Psalm 146:3–4).
Christian, go look up the things people quote from Scripture. Ask, “Does the Bible really say that?” Then you will not be led away from the true truth of God’s Word by others, whether they be politicians or preachers.
2 All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
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