We enjoy throwing around the labels conservative and liberal as if they’re two different camps of people. But what does it actually mean to be conservative or liberal? Can we accurately assume what someone stands for just because they’re labeled conservative?
Labels are the devil’s way of helping us feel important. If I have a label—CEO, Coaching Consultant, Pastor, Dad, Conservative—I have a sense of identity and significance. But just having a label doesn’t mean I’m doing anything profitable, much less right.
And if I have a label I can stick on you, it gives me superiority and puffs my ego—and often, a license by which to write you off.
But labels are vague and worthless. What does it actually mean to be CEO of a company? What does a Coaching Consultant do? How does one know a good pastor from a bad pastor or a good Dad from a bad Dad?
I’m not sure we can ever rid this world of labels—that’s really not the point. Too often, however, we stop at at labels. As if being conservative or liberal completely describes who we are and what we stand for.
Conservative. What is a conservative? Or perhaps a better question is what is a liberal?
In Christian churches, usually conservative is the better side to be on. But what does it mean to be a conservative in church? Does it mean I value family? That I care about modesty and a holy lifestyle? Or does it mean I place doctrine above relationships and practice above faith?
What is a liberal? Someone who disregards God’s Word as Truth and pushes for change that enables them to live however they want? Or is a liberal someone who gets in the trenches and actually helps people who are in need regardless of their spiritual state?
I can’t find an easy answer for what conservative and liberal mean. Some have said conservatives value the past while liberals see everything in the past as needing fixed. But that just feels like another vague description by which to manipulate my sense of identity. I see “liberals” doing good and “conservatives doing bad.
Or is the only thing that matters having a label to throw?
I think we could do better. We could more accurately understand what being a conservative or liberal means.
The literal meaning of conservative, for all your literalists out there, means preservative, of or relating to a philosophy of conservativism, tending or disposed to maintaining existing views, conditions, or institutions: traditional.
Liberal means of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts; marked by generosity: openhanded; obsolete: lacking moral restraint; not literal or strict; broad-minded; of, favoring, or based on the principles of liberalism.
Depending on what you’re talking about a conservative does value the past (or at least “existing views”). A liberal is broad-minded which no doubt leads to a willingness for change. However, what are the “existing views” for Christians? What conditions will a conservative Christian tend to maintain?
I think the way we throw these labels around illustrates how perverted prosperous Christianity has gotten.
As disciples of Christ, our views, conditions and institutions are based on God’s Word. So here is what I propose as a better definition for a conservative Christian: one who sticks close to the Scriptures.
My Dad likes to say there are left-wing liberals and right-wing liberals. A person who holds a truly conservative position with God’s Word (sticks close to the Scriptures), will at times be deemed stuck-in-the-mud by progressives. They won’t be modern enough, adjusting their beliefs to the trends and currents of culture.
At the same time, someone who truly values God’s Word will also get dubbed liberal by traditionalists because truly following the Scriptures leads us to do some radical, progressive things, like when Jesus sat down and talked with a lady his people considered untouchable.
Most conservatives and liberals today don’t value authenticity to God’s Word, they simply want things their way. They’re not concerned about staying close to the Scripture. Instead they either add their own commandments or take away the ones that are already there.
Maybe you’re saying, though, “That’s nice, but who determines what is ‘close to the Scriptures’? We all interpret the Bible differently.” And it’s true. One person with a high view of Scripture considers Matthew 5-7 as not applicable for this dispensation. Another person with a high view of Scripture believes it is applicable and that we are commanded to live it out.
A true conservative, as I am defining it in this post, recognizes the intricate challenges of interpreting Scripture while unafraid of living and teaching what he deeply believes is most Biblical.
However, perhaps the most clearly distinguishing trait of a conservative is that he loves well. Relationships matter. His high view of Scripture doesn’t determine who he pursues and who he ignores, like it does for many traditional conservatives today. Rather, it motivates him to pursue everyone. He doesn’t compromise on Truth, but gently responds to people’s struggles in a way that draws them in and makes them feel cared for; not judged.
This new conservative walks with people in their journeys no matter how their choices line up with his expectations because he truly cares about helping them experience Christ and growing in maturity; not about being right, growing his church, or feeling significant.
Do you know people like this? Or is everyone out to push their own agenda?
Many of those labeled conservative today are actually quite liberal because their love is conditional, and that is not staying close to God’s Word. People who truly value Christ and His Word realize they cannot separate love and truth, they cannot delineate between grace and obedience. They teach the two hand in hand, as Christ did–even when they’re not exactly sure how to explain it because getting people to do what they want isn’t the point. The point is leading people into a deeper love for Christ, and we do that by aligning our worldview, our teaching, and our method of discipleship with the Scriptures.
The new conservative understands God’s story and functions within it instead of trying to use the Bible as a resource for his own constitution.
I don’t know where this puts you. Does this new definition of conservative describe you? If so, you have probably already been ostracized and persecuted because in a world of many religious perspectives, truly sticking close to the Scriptures feels uncomfortable. We prefer a view of God’s Word that is easy to understand and explain, but the reality is it’s not. God’s Word is excruciatingly mysterious, and that’s okay.
We don’t have to know how it all works together exactly. We simply need to trust, walking in faith that when we follow His Word, He blesses us with clarity and fruit.
Are you willing to be a true conservative? To leave behind the erroneous labels of left and right, as if one is better than the other? If so, you will face opposition. You will be held in suspicion. But the God who sees and knows your heart and lifestyle as it is on Monday through Saturday, off-stage and behind backs will bless you abundantly with spiritual fruit.
If you are not willing to be a true conservative, if instead you prefer handy labels and oppressive agendas, you will not bear fruit.
Don’t walk in blindness–someone who “draws near to God with you mouth and honors with you lips, but hides your heart far from him” (Is. 29:13). Instead, repent. Abandon yourself to Christ and His ways even when you don’t fit other’s convenient presumptions. Live totally for the glory of God and not the opinions of man and He will bless you.
