Life Lessons Charlie Kirk Taught Us

Like millions of others, the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination hit me like a gut punch. I never had the pleasure of meeting Charlie, though we both lived in Phoenix. I’m an infrequent listener to his podcast and observed his work at a distance. However, my admiration for him has grown in recent years as I have watched him blossom into a truly gifted speaker and defender of biblical truths that are precious to me.

I was always glad he was out there, so effectively defending the truth in the public arena. Reflecting on his impact in recent days and listening to the voices of many who knew him well has only deepened my appreciation for him.

Here are a few “life lessons” we can learn from Charlie Kirk.

Don’t let the fear of man prevent you from confronting lies and speaking the truth.

Charlie wanted to be known for his courage. We live in what Aaron Renn calls “the negative world.” The elite culture-shapers in the West have largely rejected God, embraced false, destructive ideologies, and are deeply hostile to Christians and Jews. As a result, publicly proclaiming your faith or defending the biblical worldview comes at a cost. This is particularly true on our college campuses. The result: Many Christians keep their heads down, try to stay “non-political” and go along to get along.

Tragically, far too many legacy evangelical institutions and leading pastors have gone a step further, tacitly embracing the false “woke” ideology of our day with a Christian veneer, including Christianity Today, the National Association of Evangelicals, InterVarsity, most of our leading universities, and many of our churches. For more on this, see Shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham.

Against this grain, Charlie Kirk spoke openly about biblical truth and directly confronted the lies and false ideologies at the heart of the culture, and was willing to pay the price for doing so. His courage was inspiring and contagious. Writing on this, essayist Rod Dreher said:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vaclav Havel both said that people who are willing to live not by lies, and willing to suffer for their convictions will attract more and more people to their cause by their courage, such that eventually a system built on lies will collapse.

Kirk chose to live in the truth (not by lies), and in doing so, followed the example of Solzhenitsyn and Havel. If we follow his example, the lies will eventually collapse.

Christianity is more than a message of personal salvation; it is a worldview that defines all of reality.

Charlie Kirk’s understanding of Christianity was expansive. It wasn’t confined to so-called “spiritual” topics or activities, such as prayer, church attendance, or personal spiritual salvation. He understood it as a worldview that shapes every aspect of life and culture. Because of that, he knew there was a biblical way of understanding a wide range of topics, including economics, morality, government, politics, family, sex, marriage, and everything else.

Here’s how the great Os Guinness describes this mindset:

Christian thinking is not simply thinking about Christian topics. It is the ability to think about anything and everything in a consistently Christian manner.

Kirk believed, along with Francis Schaeffer, that we should work “on the basis of the finished work of Christ for substantial healing now in every area where there are divisions because of the fall,” and this enabled him to be outspoken on a wide range of cultural issues from the standpoint of biblical truth. He was unafraid to take on any and every question and challenge, regardless of the subject.

Pay attention to the fundamentals.

While Kirk was outspoken on a wide range of cultural issues, he understood that some truths are more fundamental in their importance, and he prioritized them, allowing them to shine through in all his interactions. Truths like these: Jesus is King. He loves you and died for you. Surrender your life to Him. Marriage is a gift from God, and it is the bedrock of all social change. Love your wife. Have children and raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

These truths were never peripheral; they were always at the center.

Don’t quit. Never despair.

The COVID crisis and the woke cultural revolution rocked the world between 2018 and 2022, reaching its crescendo with the George Floyd riots in 2020. This was followed by controversies surrounding the 2020 election, the January 6th riot, and the resulting censorship, lawfare, and growing tyranny.

For many of us, it seemed that forces of darkness were prevailing. Many of us looked around and saw nearly every institution of culture–government, media, big business, big sports, law, and education dominated by the ideology of “woke” cultural Marxism in its various forms. Most disheartening of all, many evangelical churches, schools, and institutions surrendered to the spirit of the age.

The strong temptation at the time was to give in to hopelessness and despair. It’s over. The culture is lost and beyond redemption. There’s no hope. Resistance is futile.

Only a handful stood against this tide of despair, and Charlie Kirk was one. He never gave up or gave in. After each setback, he picked himself up, moved forward, doubled down, and kept fighting. His motto seemed to be “never surrender.” The power behind this was his faith in the Risen Lord Jesus and a sure knowledge of His ultimate victory over sin and death. We know how the story ends, so there is no room for hopelessness or despair.

Let our message be this: We will never stop fighting for truth, goodness, beauty, and freedom.

Be a “winsome” Christian, but never separate truth and love.

Over the past decade, many evangelicals have advocated for an approach that some call “winsome third-wayism,” which refrains from taking sides between the political left and right. Instead, it seeks a “third way” that blends the ideas of both. A key goal is to be perceived as “nice,” non-threatening, and non-offensive (particularly to cultural elites), thereby fostering openness to the Gospel. Here’s how theologian Owen Strachan aptly describes this approach:

In recent decades, evangelicals have thirsted after cultural approval. We desperately want to be accepted by secular culture. We have exchanged our holy birthright for a Facebook fan page. Our hermeneutic is not motivated by righteous awe, fear, and trembling, nor by the honor and magnificence of our God. It is driven by a craven desire to be liked, to be culturally acceptable.

Kirk took a different tack. Rather than prioritizing being inoffensive in the eyes of cultural elites, he was motivated by the truth. In an era when lies are prevalent in the culture, he understood that the truth would be offensive, regardless of how winsome and gracious one’s presentation is. He spoke truthfully with grace, and for this, countless people vilified him. Here is how Elizabeth Spiers wrote about Kirk in The Nation magazine following his assassination:

He was an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct. He had children, as do many vile people.

How did Kirk respond to such vitriol? With grace. With a sparkle in his eye and a quick smile. There was a gentleness to his approach. He didn’t curse or slander his opponents. He didn’t try to demean or destroy them verbally, but to win them over to the truth for their own good. He sought to model what it means to “love your enemies,” but unlike the advocates of “winsome third wayism,” he never separated truth from love.

Love your nation and work for its betterment.

Kirk was an ardent patriot who loved the United States. He loved the founding ideals, which he correctly understood were rooted in the Scripture. See this powerful clip of Kirk on this subject. He loved freedom and the right to self-govern under God’s law. For this, he was disparaged as a “white, Christian Nationalist” by non-Christians and Christians alike.

But Kirk refused to separate his love for God from his love for America. Indeed, his love for God was first and foremost, but that didn’t preclude him from loving other things as well – such as his family and his nation. Far from it, loving God required him to love his family and nation, and seek their well-being and flourishing.

Don’t fall into the trap of political neutrality.

Kirk was a highly influential political activist and operator, and this also ran counter to much of evangelical culture. The “winsome third-wayism” of the late Timothy Keller and groups like The Gospel Coalition advocated for political neutrality.

But Kirk correctly saw the fallacy of this approach. He understood that political parties organize around a set of policy priorities, and beneath those policies are basic worldview principles and core beliefs that are never neutral. They align, either more or less, with the truth of the Bible and the biblical worldview. Here’s how he put it: “Spiritual problems manifest themselves into cultural problems that then become political problems.”

Historically, we see many examples of deeply evil and dehumanizing beliefs championed by political parties. Think of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s as a prime example. We all agree in hindsight that “winsome third-wayism” would amount to complicity in evil for the church in Germany at the time. It had a duty to fight against the Nazi Party. Tragically, many German Christians failed to do so.

In the same way, winsome third-wayism isn’t a viable option for the faithful Christian in America today. To stand for truth and justice demands that we support the political party that most closely aligns with biblical truth across a wide range of issues, and be prepared to speak out against evil and injustice within either party, rooting our critique in the Bible and biblical principles.

Kirk threw his energy and support behind the Republican party because he believed its basic policy positions on a host of fundamental issues better aligned with fundamental biblical principles, such as protecting the life of unborn children, and resisting gender ideology in policy and education.

It turns out that his robust support for the Republican Party didn’t harm his gospel witness. It now seems clear that he was one of the most effective evangelists in recent years, with both Democrats, Republicans and Independents coming to faith as a result of his politically active yet Gospel-centered approach.

Don’t let schooling stand in the way of education.

Charlie Kirk didn’t graduate from college. He dropped out after one semester at Harper College near Chicago. And yet, that lack of formal “schooling” didn’t mean he wasn’t highly educated. He was a voracious reader of everything from economics to philosophy, from history to theology. He has an inquisitive mind and a deep thirst for knowledge and wisdom.

In his 2021 book Don’t Let Schooling Stand in the Way of Education, my colleague Darrow Miller delineated the difference between “schooling” and education this way:

• A school is a classroom with four walls, whereas with education, “the world is my classroom.”
• Schooling consists of 12 years of primary and secondary education, followed by four years of college, culminating in a graduation ceremony. Education is a lifelong pursuit that never ends, even in eternity.
• Schooling is characterized by rote memorization and regurgitation of information. Education is the forming of an inquisitive mind, the ability to reason from principle, the kindling of creativity, and the ability to think independently.

Kirk didn’t follow the traditional “schooling” track through four years of college, but pursued ongoing education while developing his logical, reasoning, and debate skills in the real world. He was recently invited to the most storied debating society in the West, at Oxford University—an impressive feat for someone with no college degree.

Work hard, with excellence.

Yesterday, in an Instagram post, Erika Kirk, Charlie’s wife, wrote: “I remember seeing on your wrist a red bracelet. You never took it off; it said, ‘Work harder, be better.’ And every day you did just that.” That a young man, aged 31, could accomplish as much as Kirk did is a testament to his incredible work ethic and passion for self-improvement. Kirk embodied this passage:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

Be a coalition-builder.

Kirk understood that real change requires far more than a gifted individual, or even a prominent and influential organization like Turning Point U.S.A. It requires a movement, and he was gifted at building a vast network of close, trusted relationships that form the foundation of any powerful movement.

Many people with whom he had close, personal relationships trusted him, even if they didn’t trust (or even like) each other. In his work as a movement-builder, Kirk’s approach was to ask, “Are we moving in the same direction?” It wasn’t, “Do we agree on everything?” Political commentator Josh Hammer said this of Charlie Kirk:

He focused on building bridges and maintaining big-tent coalitions within the broader Right. He had no interest in dividing, tearing down, or ostracizing.

Many people today seek ways to differentiate themselves from others and claim a position of superiority, often underpinned by a prideful attitude. This approach will never result in a powerful movement. Kirk’s approach was far more gracious, humble, and open. Indeed, there were boundaries to the movement, but he was remarkably successful at building trust with a broad spectrum of people, resulting in a massive and vibrant movement.

Prioritize upcoming generations.

Kirk made his primary focus on high school and college-aged young adults, groups that traditional Republican political operatives had neglected due to their history of being a Democratic voting bloc.

He spent much of his time on college campuses, talking directly and openly with young voters, treating them with dignity, allowing them to ask any question, and respectfully engaging with them. He did all this with the conviction that they are the future, so neglecting them would doom any effort to change the culture.

His hard work paid off. Today, there are over 900 Turning Point U.S.A. “chapters” in universities across the country, and since Kirk’s assassination, TPUSA is set to expand to 18,000 new chapters.

Several years ago, I heard Hollywood actor and devoted Christian Jim Caviezel give a speech to a group of young adults. He concluded with these stirring words–words that describe Charlie Kirk very well: