So if you're serving in politics as an individual only, your goal should be more money and more power. However, if you're serving a greater cause, then that shouldn't matter. "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." You trust that as you seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, He'll take care of you - the fundamental promise of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
That's how everyone should serve. The temptation in politics is to attempt to gain access to those benefits in an illegitimate way - by fraud or taking from the taxpayers or the lobbyists or whoever allows you to not trust God for provision. Once you cease to trust God for provision, then on already on the downhill slide to unbelief. Remember that it's the poor who are rich in faith.
Live for self or live covenantally? The person who lives for the covenant is loyal to his God above all else, whereas the person living for himself, fails to honor the position of God as sovereign ruler over all. He respects God's delegated authorities - first, the word of God; then His appointed ministers and shepherds in the Church; then the political authorities to whom God has given delegated power. However, that delegated power does not entitle those authorities to ultimate and total power, nor does it entitle them to the truth, if they are wickedly opposing the chosen people of God. The covenant man obeys God's law not to gain God's acceptance but because he loves God and believes God's word about blessing those who obey. And he expects victory in his endeavors, like David expected and received victory. Lastly, the covenant man, who was never living for himself, lives for future generations. That's what the Christian believes in above himself - his natural children, his spiritual children, the future kingdom and its victory in time and in history - the honor of God's name. Such a context for living makes living for personal advantage about as pitifully meaningless as it can be.
The Christian, more than anyone else, has less reason to skirt the ethical boundaries and more incentive to keep them clear and true. To violate the ethics of political dealing is to claim that man's works are the key to salvation.
However, at the same time, the idea that fairness means playing by the enemy's rules is not Christian ethics. The enemies of God blame the righteous for the very sins to which the enemies of God are totally committed, they make up rules to which they don't consider themselves bound and then hold those rules over those who don't support them. They're like the lawyers and Pharisees of Jesus' day and to whom He said, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." Matthew 23:4.
So how does a covenant keeper deal with a covenant breaker? Consider, for example, the the dealings of Samuel with Saul and the escape of David from Saul. David was a covenant keeper, a man after God's own heart. So was Samuel. Saul was not.
I Samuel 16:1-3 states: The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.”
Notice that God Himself instructs Samuel, the Priest and Prophet of Israel, to deceive Saul, the King, and appear as if he's going to visit David's father in Bethlehem for the purpose of some sort of sacrifice. The purpose was to protect Samuel's life and his mission - to anoint the new king to replace Saul.
I Samuel 17 tells the story of David and Goliath. David, a shepherd for his father's flocks and sent by his father to bring food for the army, appeared at the battle and said to himself: "I'm not a warrior; I'm just a shepherd. It's not my business to get involved. God's sovereign anyway. Even if the Philistines win the battle, God's in control and will work anything out he needs to - for His glory. I'm not going to force victory for Israel; it's none of my business anyway. It's politics and war, dirty business anyway."
No, that's not what he said. He said the following: "And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" I Samuel 17:26. "And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine." I Samuel 17:32. His faith? That God would give him, a covenant believer, victory:
"Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands."
I Samuel 17:45-7. God favors His people who are called to a mission and who step out on faith. He causes them to win. Is that fair?
"And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even. If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him."
I Samuel 20:5-7. David advised Jonathan to tell his father, Saul, a lie in order to determine whether Saul still wanted to kill David. Is that fair?
"Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present."
I Samuel 21:1-3. David lied to the High Priest about being sent on a mission for the king. He ended up getting food and a sword from Ahimelech, and Ahimelech and the priests at Nobe ended up dying because of King Saul's murderous jealousy and fear of David's ascension. I Samuel 22. Did David play fair?
David fled to a Philistine region and tried to hide, but he had to pretend as if he was mad when the Philistine king began to hear suspicious words from his servants. I Samuel 21:10-15.
David ended up having to hide out in Philistine territory. But while there, he made good use of his time.
"And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish. And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever."
I Samuel 27:8-12. He fulfilled God's will - that the people of Canaan be exterminated, and while doing so, he deceived the Philistine king as to what he was doing. Was that fair?
Extermination of the nations of Canaan was a one-time instruction for the Israelites, which was not to be applied to any other nation at that time or at any other time, unless they behave with ruthless cruelty like Amalek and murder the innocent. (See the laws of warfare given to Moses in Exodus 17:16; Deuteronomy 2:4-6; chap. 7; and chap. 20.) "This inheritance [of Canaan by the descendants of Abraham] was a one-time event. Israel was not to become an empire. Different rules of warfare were in force outside of Canaan (Deut. 20:10-15). Once the final disinheritance of the residents of Canaan was accomplished, Israel was to conquer by example, not by military power." North, Gary, "Disobedience and Defeat: An Economic Commentary on the Historical Books," (Dallas, GA: Point Five Press, 2012), p. 40. See Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
If politics involves a battle on a different level from that of physical warfare, the covenant keeper is not obligated to fight such political battles by the rules of the covenant breaker. Our God is the sovereign God, and he sets the rules, lines out the boundaries of the playing field, and determines who wins. He is the covenant keeping God as he has always been.
Is the covenant primary for you as a believer when dealing with politics? Is God the first priority? Will you be willing to exercise courage in faith? Do you believe in victory? God's victory over the enemy? Do you even believe God has enemies with whom we must deal? Can you discriminate between the covenant keepers and the covenant breakers? Do you obey Him? Do you live for God's purpose or your own? David laid out the pattern: Be called, know your calling, keep God's glory first, obey Him but don't let the enemy turn you from God's purpose, and live for the covenant future God desires, not your own. And you will win, and you won't win fairly. You'll win because God favors you.
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