Is God Pro-Choice?

It has been pretty hard to not notice what has been going on in the country lately. A new law was passed in New York a few months ago that caused an uproar on both sides all over the nation. Another bill was signed just yesterday in Alabama. If you have been keeping up with it, then you know. If you haven’t, you can Google it. But that is not really what this post is all about. It is more about what that law has caused people all over the world to do. 

There are divisions all among us. Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, DC or Marvel (That last one is a joke but people actually get really heated about it…) Not to mention the countless denominations just among Christianity. We can’t even agree in our own “religion”. The whole world is Us vs Them. But where is that getting us?

There is hate all over the place. Whoever is not with “us” is against “us”. But that’s not fair. I’m not saying that we can’t be different, but we can’t hate someone just because they are on a different “side”. We need people who think differently than we do around us so that it stretches us to choose what we will believe and why. 

So here is the question: Why do we have people that are different than us? Because God is pro-choice, just not the pro-choice that we think it to mean today. God gave us the gift of free will from the very beginning. He is the Lord and He could command us and force us all to follow Him, but He doesn’t. He gives us the option to choose Him or not. 

However, as it is with anything that God creates for good, the devil wants to try and use it for destruction in our lives. God wanted us to have the freedom to choose. But I believe that God is also pro-life. In Deuteronomy 30:19 He tells us that He sets life and death before us and gives us the choice. But He goes on to say "Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days,” He wants you to choose life, to choose Him, because He knows that He is the only One who can give you true life. The devil from the very beginning wanted us to use this gift from God to choose anything but Him. 

It’s not a choice between what should happen with an unborn baby, it’s a choice about what happens with your soul. And not just so you don’t go to hell someday, but so that you don’t have to live in hell while you’re still on this earth. He invites you to just simply be with Him. He invites you to live fully loved and fully known in spite of your flaws. He wants to bring healing and peace even in the most uncertain of circumstances. He wants to be the Father you never had or the friend you could never be. He wants to be your Provider and Protector. He wants so much more for your life than you can even comprehend. He wants you to choose life. 

But the devil doesn’t want that, like I already said. He wants to take the good God intended for this world and twist it to be used for darkness. This is why evil exists in our world, and why we see so much of it come through humans. Mankind has been given a right to choose. Good or evil. Light or darkness. God or the devil. They get to make the decision, and they don’t always make the best ones. The enemy is always whispering lies into a person's ears to choose the way of darkness. He makes it look so good, and even right, to choose what he is saying because it often feels right or justified, but it doesn’t line up with Truth, with the Word of God. They listen to a lie, and then evil is birthed. 

But make no mistake, the Bible says that we do not fight against flesh and blood. The evil is not with the person, it is with the spiritual influence on or inside that person. It’s easier for us to blame something we can see than to blame something we cannot see. That type of thinking is wrong. We are at war. Not with human beings. We are fighting the spiritual forces of evil on this earth and in heavenly places. Our fight is spiritual. 

So what do we do about people? We love them. Notice I did not say accept what they are doing or say what they may be doing is okay. I said love them. Choose to show kindness to them instead of automatically ignoring them or passing judgement. 

We as Christians have gotten into a habit of taking one verse of scripture and going off of it without reading it in the context of the rest of the Bible. We take verses like 1 Timothy 5:20 that says, "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” And we use it as an excuse to actually spew hate and judgement on people. But if you read the entire chapter it actually warns against passing judgement and rebuking someone before you have all the facts. This verse is actually talking about pastors and teachers and elders who are in sin and have been addressed by other teachers and elders and yet do not listen to the advice and choose to continue in their sin. 

Likewise, Jesus only rebuked religious leaders of the time that were using the law given by God to Moses as a measuring stick to show just how much better they were than all the common people of the time. When Jesus interacted with the so-called “sinners” He addressed them with love, compassion, and mercy. He healed any diseases they may have had and forgave their sins. Then, after showing compassion and love, He would charge them to go and leave their sin behind. Only after He had shown mercy and love did He give them a commandment. 

You see, it is the love of God that causes people to change. When someone feels seen, when they feel that someone has taken time to understand them, then they feel open to receive advice from them. They are willing to then try and understand the other person as well. 

I’m not saying that we cannot or should not take a stance on things that we believe are wrong or that we should just stand by and be silent, but we cannot forsake love in the name of truth. The Bible says to “speak truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) which means we have to love first before we can speak truth freely. We have to build relationships with people so that they can trust us enough to hear the Truth without dismissing us as close-minded conservatives. Our goal is not to push our own agenda on them, our goal is to give them an opportunity to meet with Jesus who is the only One who can change their lives.  

So, what does that look like practically? How do you use your social media? Is it full of agendas that you are “taking a stand on” but it’s really about pushing your own thought on it? Or is it full of encouraging words and Scripture that are allowing others to see the heart of the Father for them? Do you form automatic judgements on someone based on what they look like or what they say? Or do you show kindness to everyone you meet, regardless of what they look like? Your stance on issues can come through your votes and being educated on candidates before you go to the polls. Vote in people who are going to vote for what you would vote for. Is there a law you don’t agree with? Start a petition. You have those rights. But do you have to blast it over social media or to anyone you come in contact with? Probably not. 

It all boils down to, is your initial reaction love or judgement? 

And here’s what is great and not so great about this, it’s your choice. Just like it is the person’s choice to choose abortion, or rape, or murder, or lying, or abuse, or addiction, or hate, or racism, or stealing, or sex-trafficking, or any other evil we want to get heated over. God gives us the choice. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that because we are under grace that we do have the right to choose, but not everything we choose is beneficial to us. 

Choose love. Choose freedom. Choose Life. Choose Jesus. It is a gift to choose. And the life you get in return far outweighs anything you could get from any other choice.