Texas Senate candidate James Talarico told a Dallas congregation on Oct. 11 that his campaign is like David's battle with Goliath -- casting his political opponents as the giant and the people of Texas as David's slingshot, according to Charisma News, which cited Baptist News Global.

"We're going up against our own Goliaths -- the billionaire megadonors, the crooked politicians, the entire Washington establishment," Talarico said at Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas.

"David wasn't as big or as strong as Goliath; he didn't have as many weapons, but he had hope, and he had a slingshot," he continued. "You are my slingshot, the people of Texas are my slingshot, and on November 3, these Goliaths aren't gonna know what hit them."

But the biblical account of David and Goliath carries a deeper meaning than an underdog campaign story. Standing before the Philistine giant, David did not credit his sling or his aim. He declared, "the battle is the LORD's," and said God would deliver Goliath into his hand "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel" (1 Samuel 17:46-47). The glory belonged to God, not to David.

At the same church appearance, Talarico criticized Texas Republicans' push to display the Ten Commandments in public schools. "The Texas Legislature is so focused on the 10 that they forget about the two," he said, referring to Jesus' commands to love God and love one's neighbor.

Yet Scripture does not pit the Ten Commandments against the two. When Jesus identified loving God and loving one's neighbor as the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40), He added: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Earlier He declared that He had not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). The two summarize the ten; they do not replace them.

These were campaign remarks at a political appearance, and the report notes the danger of reducing the Bible to campaign slogans. Scripture is the standard by which believers test the world -- including the words of candidates -- not a tool for scoring points in a debate.

As the election approaches, the church has a clear calling: measure every candidate's words, and every one of our own convictions, by the Word of God, and keep first things first.