Godly Leadership Principles That Can Restore America

This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Thorns in a Nation’s Side.

America’s has a leadership crisis. We have a lack of good leaders who fear God.

Judges 9 gives one of many examples in the Bible of a pitiful politician and a nation in disarray. It is a lesson of national apostasy in the Bible for us to consider.

A nation gets the leadership it deserves. Wicked rulers are God’s reward for a wicked people. What does this say about America?

National Sin and Apostasy

If you flipped in your Bible to Judges 7, you would read of Gideon’s victory. God put the enemy camp in disarray and there was a mighty victory. Wouldn’t the people be grateful to God, and never turn away from Him?

Skip ahead just one chapter, and see the apostasy of an unthankful people.

So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god. Thus the children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel (Judges 8:33-35).

Has America not done just the same thing?

America’s National Sin

We are not merely dealing with immorality among the lost, but with apostasy—so-called Christians are abandoning the Church. Liberal denominations are underwriting and sponsoring the “re-imagining” of God, allowing women pastors, and denying the Trinity, Christ’s atonement, and our fundamental biblical foundations. Every politician talks about values, but when you ask him whose values, he has nothing to say. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6b).

Culture has normalized that which is abnormal. Kids watch any mainstream entertainment and see unmarried people slipping in and out of bed as normally as people would shake hands. Profanity and filth are known as polite conversation. What used to amaze us now amuses us.

But the wickedness does not stop with legitimizing what God calls sin: they then stigmatized that which is good, and decent, and godly. The word “virgin” is laughed at. Monogamous marriage is a joke. For simply preaching biblical truth, you will be called a part of the “radical religious right.” We are losing the religious liberty that our forefathers—including godly church leaders—worked to protect.

This is America.

We have done as Israel did: we have gone chasing after idols and have forgotten God.

The Consequences of Ungodly Leadership

In this situation in Judges 9, there arose an ungodly leader. His name was Abimelech—and he was a son of Gideon, born of his concubine. This wicked man had an unholy ambition to lead the country.

Ungodly Leaders Attract Their Own Kind

The first thing Abimelech did was build his coalition. He went back to where he was raised and said, “I’m one of you. I’m your own flesh and blood.” He played on the pride of the men of Shechem—“and their heart was inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, ‘He is our brother’” (Judges 9:3b).

They gave him money out of the temple of Baal-Berith—the god of sexual immorality—“with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him” (Judges 9:4b).

How many times have we seen our politicians playing this same tactic?

Ungodly Leaders Do Not Value Life

As soon as power was in Abimelech’s hand… “Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone” (Judges 9:5a). He was a bloody man.

You may say, “We don’t see that today. They would put you in jail for that.” No, but we can have a government built on the blood of millions of innocent babies.

Ungodly Leaders Make a Pretense of Religion

Abimelech had himself inaugurated with a show of religion. “And all the men of Shechem gathered together, all of Beth Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem” (Judges 9:6).

Most believe this is where God gave Abraham the covenant. This is where Abimelech chose to be crowned, to associate himself with the good and holy, and made a farce of the whole thing.

But…when Abimelech murdered his brothers, just one had escaped. And now he returned to call out Abimelech’s sin.

Biblical Hope to Restore America

“Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: ‘Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you!’” (Judges 9:7.)

Don’t Leave Civil Government to the Wicked

Jotham told the people a parable. (Read Judges 9:8-15.)

The trees needed a king. They asked the olive tree to rule. It replied, “I can’t. I’m too busy producing oil; after all, that’s a national necessity.”

They asked the fig tree. “Oh, I can’t do that. I’m too busy producing sweetness.” Not a necessity, but it is a nicety.

They went to the vine. “I can’t rule over you. I’m too busy producing wine to cheer the heart of Man and God.” That is a luxury. They were all so busy doing good things.

So they asked the bramble, “Will you rule over us?”

The bramble replied, “Be glad to.”

A bramble has no fruit, no shade, no timber. It rips whatever it touches, it chokes out good things, and it is very hard to root out. Jotham was warning Israel that the good men had fled their civic responsibilities and were letting a bramble rule.

No one is certain who said these wise words first, but they are true:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

The Responsibility of Christian Men

There should be no despair. As the Book of Judges later shows, God would rather forgive than judge. There can be revival and restoration—but there must first be repentance. Repentance is the first step in the restoration of America.

If we need good and godly leaders, it follows that our godly men need to have good leadership skills. What biblical guidance is there for godly leadership principles?

Biblical Principles for Christian Leadership

What does God require of a Christian leader?

Godly Leaders Must Be Godly

You cannot be a godly leader if you are not godly.

Character is rooted in God’s principles. A leader without character will contaminate whatever he touches. Leadership is really stewardship because the leader acts for God with the authority God has delegated to Him. He must have vision and valor to do God’s work, because he is God’s minister, put in place to punish evil and praise good.

Romans 13:3-4

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil (Romans 13:3-4).

For a leader to be established, he must be righteous. There is no other way.

It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established by righteousness (Proverbs 16:12).

Godly Leaders Need Wisdom

Which is more important: for a leader to be smart, or to be wise?

Proverbs 8:12-16

I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth (Proverbs 8:12-16).

Wisdom is necessary for governing, and true wisdom only comes from godliness and righteousness. A leader cannot have wisdom from God unless he is under God in service and worship.

Godly Leaders Are Committed to Honesty

Speaking No Lies Themselves

Liars and leaders are not the same person. “Excellent speech is not becoming to a fool, much less lying lips to a prince” (Proverbs 17:7).

If he is a liar, he should not be elected. Simple.

Tolerating No Lies in Others

They cannot be a people who listen to lies, either, for the Bible says, “If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked” (Proverbs 29:12).

Men leading with fortitude and honesty, guided by what is right, make history.

Godly Leaders are Discriminating About Helpers

If a leader is not discriminating enough to choose the right people to accompany him—godly people to lead alongside him—he is unfit to lead at all.

“Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness” (Proverbs 25:5). A leader is known by his inner circle. To whom does he go for counsel?

Godly Leaders Are Ready to Protect the Weak

When people are in peril and cannot speak for themselves, the king should speak for them.

Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8-9).

God gives us leaders to protect us from evil people. Therefore, leaders should be defenders of those who cannot defend themselves. That is particularly true of innocent unborn babies.

A Christian’s Civic Responsibilities: Principles for Godly Voting

It is unthinkable that Almighty God would ordain government, then have His people stay out of it. Who does that leave, then, to influence and lead?

The Church cannot leave the governing to the wicked. That means we cannot leave the voting to the wicked, either. If you do not vote, you have disobeyed God’s plan for His people to be involved in the world.

When you vote, look for a man who is godly and who has real wisdom, not one who leads by seeing which way the wind is blowing or who goes by the polls. We cannot expect God to bless iniquity. He cannot and He will not.

Know where each candidate stands on the issue of protecting life and on God’s design for marriage. Then prayerfully cast your vote for those most closely aligned with God’s principles for life and godliness in a nation.

List of Scriptures Referenced in This Article

Judges 8:33-35, 9, 17:6; Romans 13:3-4; Proverbs 8:12-16, 16:12, 17:7, 25:5, 29:12, 31:8-9

More Bible Verses About Righteous Leadership

Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself,” says the LORD, “that this house shall become a desolation” (Jeremiah 22:3-5).

Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s Son. He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people; he will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor (Psalm 72:1-4).