If you’re a Christian and you plan on voting this Tuesday, it’s possible that you still don’t know who you’re going to vote for. More likely, you’ve worked out some rationale around the “lesser of two evils” or some singular litmus test issue that is emotionally close to you. The only problem is that neither of these approaches can really be taken from Scripture. They’re secular answers we’ve tried to attach to a Christian question.

Instead, allow me to offer an explicitly biblical lens for helping you discern how to vote (but not definitively decide!) with a single important passage from the Bible.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, where the Spirit writes through the Apostle Paul:

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to those outside of the church or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.”

Let’s take three points from 1 Corinthians when it comes to voting:

• Our vote is meant to glorify God. If you can glorify God in your eating or drinking, then surely your vote is capable of glorifying God. That means then I’m not voting for the lesser of two evils, I’m voting to glory of God. This sets us on a healthier, more life-giving trajectory.

• Glorifying God in our voting is directly connected not to just how Christians perceive our voting, but non-Christians too. This means when voting, we should avoid politics that separates our communities into “us” (aka Christian) and “them” (aka non-Christian) categories. If there has to be an “us” and “them”, it should be “us for them.”

• Glorifying God in the presence of non-Christians should have the effect drawing them closer to gospel, particularly those that are poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and discriminated against. If your idea of glorifying God is repelling those kind of non-Christians (or their friends) from Christ, you’re probably doing it wrong. So when it comes to voting, ask yourself if your vote was known to non-Christians or your rationale was disclosed to the non-Christians you know, would it help or injure your gospel witness?

So as you enter that voting booth, please keep in mind that your vote is part of your responsibility as an “ambassador of reconciliation” in the gospel. We are grateful recipients of the Good News, but we are also meant to embody the Good News. Even if our non-Christian neighbors never accept the good news of the Christ into their lives, they should still see Christ’s followers as good news in their lives, especially as good news for the poor, vulnerable, marginalized and discriminated against. If our neighbors don’t see our political preferences as part of that, if they see the candidates we support as bad news, we are likely failing to glorify God. Instead, let’s do as Paul challenges us, to “not seek [our] own advantage, but that of many, that they might be saved.”

By the way, this challenge will still be the same after November 8^th.