5 Ways the Early Church Can Help Christians Survive Absolute Political Chaos

What would Jesus do amid an American political crisis that feels more fragmented and splintered than it’s been in generations? That’s the central question pastor and author Joshua Ryan Butler dealt with in his latest book, “The Party Crasher: How Jesus Disrupts Politics as Usual and Redeems Our Partisan Divide.” Butler, who has been pastoring for two decades, said the past two election cycles have seen a “fracturing” and division that has obviously been felt by everyone.

“The political divide is wider than ever,” he said, noting it has cracked “families, and friendships, and even churches.” Seeing the pain of church divides resulting from this chaos, Butler said he wanted to write the book to offer people resources and helpful tips on how to navigate complex political seasons. This, of course, becomes increasingly important in a culture that seems to be treating politics like a religion. “Historically, the root of the term ‘religion’ actually had to do with devotion, like, what you were most devoted to, and devotion, and the social obligations and expectations that came with that devotion,” Butler said. “And I would argue that, for many people today, there’s no greater devotion or zeal that they’re showing than to their political ideology … so I think that there’s a religious nature to it.”

Butler believes Christians should take their cues from the early church when it comes to modeling behavior. “There’s been historians who have looked at the early church and [saw] how they modeled kind of this countercultural posture when it came to … their civic presence in the world,” he said, noting the late historian Larry Hurtado pinpointed five particular elements that made the early church unique. The first marker was the building of a multiethnic community, where slaves and free men and women — Jews and Gentiles — dined together “around the table in Christ.”

“This was this radical countercultural presence,” Butler said. Care for the poor was another differentiator. With no social safety nets, the church cared for those in need. Next came what Butler called a “high sexual ethic,” something deeply divergent from the Romans. “The Romans were famous for being kind of generous with their sex, so to speak, and stingy with their money,” he said. “Whereas, the church was famous for the opposite of being stingy with their sex — like reserving sex for the marriage bed — but generous with their money and their finances.” Watch him explain the rest.

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