It’s election season, but the Eight Commandment is not an elective.

Is it just me, or does it seem that this particular political campaign season has gotten rather nasty?  Innuendo, name-calling, half-truths and out-right lies being told about this candidate or that one – it’s more than a little off-putting, isn’t it?  Of course, it’s less important that I am bothered by that than it is that God doesn’t like it.  Nor does he excuse it because “it’s just the way it is” in politics.  The Eighth Commandment is perfectly clear:  “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”  Martin Luther – as he usually did – had the meaning of that dialed in to sharp focus:  “We should fear and love God that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, or give him a bad name, but defend him, speak well of him, and take his words and actions in the kindest possible way.”  Wouldn’t it be awesome if every person who ran for elected office sat down with his or her campaign staff and said, “This is your core value statement for running this campaign.  Policy differences are fair game, but we are NOT going to be breaking the Eighth Commandment.”  I would imagine that campaigns would be more positive in tone , less personal in attacks, and more clearly focused on policy.  But that’s not always what we hear from those candidates, is it?

And that’s not always what we do, either.  It isn’t just presidential candidates who run afoul of the Eight Commandment.  I do, too.  I catch myself repeating things I’ve heard about a candidate when I have no certain knowledge that it is so.  That’s gossip at best and lying at worst.  I hear myself saying some very disrespectful things about those who are leaders, never mind Paul’s injunction regarding my attitude and actions toward those in government:  “Give to everyone what you owe him:  If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”  (Romans 13:7)  Am I only talking about myself here, or does this describe you, too?  Yes, we are a republic and we have a democratic process for electing our leaders, but that does not make the Eight Commandment an elective.  It is still required by God that all people respect it and obey it.

Every day I need to caucus  with my heart and with the Word.  Every day I need to have God call me on this stuff and call me to repentance.  Every day I need to drop the excuses for my sin and the excuses for not doing as God requires and just call it what it is:  sin.  But then I need to caucus with my Savior and hear his reassuring word:  “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord.  ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’”  (Isaiah 1:18) Lent is the perfect time to travel with Jesus to the cross and see where he put that gracious policy of forgiveness into effect.