Is It Wrong for Christians to Be Patriotic?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

Love Your Country: A New Experiment in Democracy

• The question posed: Paul wrote that our citizenship is in heaven, and Peter spoke of believers as pilgrims and strangers — if our true citizenship is in heaven, and we are merely passing through this world, how should we think about our country?
• We should love our country. As an American citizen, there is much to value America for, despite all of its flaws, both historically and in the present: it has historically been the greatest champion of freedom, and it still has the oldest written constitution in the world. When America was founded, the major nations of the world were all ruled by dictatorships, or kings and oligarchies — there was no functioning democracy among the major nations of the world. So America truly was a new experiment, in that government comes from the people, not from leaders at the top.
• And of course rights are given by God, and they're enshrined in the bill of rights: the idea that the people should govern themselves, and that people have inalienable rights from God that government doesn't give and government doesn't take away — that was really unique. As an American citizen, not only is he patriotic, but he believes America is a special place — an experiment in democracy that has changed the whole world.
• Having said that, being a patriot doesn't mean you have to support the decisions of your government: sometimes you may disagree with the decisions of the government, and that's part of democracy. We vote for leaders, we vote for policies, and through our elected representatives we vote for the laws that we want, and that we don't want.

Love of Neighbor Extended — and Pray for the City

• Every person should love their country — and it extends from what Jesus said: love your neighbor as yourself. We should love our neighbor; well, shouldn't that mean to love our neighborhood, or our city? Because if our city is doing poorly, that's going to affect us personally, and our neighbors personally. So loving your neighbor actually means to have some love for your community — and by extension, whatever the governing unit, the state, the nation, there should be some love, because that's a logical extension of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
• The Bible does speak of this in Psalm 122: 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.' We sometimes say everybody should pray for Jerusalem — and that's right — but in that context, those were the Israelites; that was their capital; that represented their nation. So it wasn't just that all the world should pray for Jerusalem: primarily and foremost, it was pray for your capital. And it was a special nation.
• Then there's the statement in Jeremiah 29, when the people were taken into captivity — foreign nations, pagan nations, nations whose government we would not support, whose laws or customs we would not support, that would be contrary to God's word. But here's what God said, in Jeremiah 29:7: 'And seek the peace of the city where I've caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace.' Even when you're in a pagan nation, a foreign nation, a nation that does not obey God's law: pray for that nation — not that it would succeed in evil, but that there would be peace, and so that you would have peace. So the Bible does teach love of country, and prayer for country — but it's not uncritical.

Scriptures: Psalm 122; Jeremiah 29:7

A Heavenly Citizenship That Transcends the Earthly

• As already stated, Philippians 3: Paul says we have a heavenly citizenship, not an earthly. Various places in the Bible, we're strangers and pilgrims. Hebrews 11: the people of faith of the Old Testament realized that they were strangers and pilgrims in the country; they're looking for a city that's made by God, not by human hands. And so we as believers always are looking for an eternal city — which means our ultimate values are eternal.
• So when the religious leaders tried to prevent the apostles from preaching the gospel in Acts 5, the apostle Peter said: we ought to obey God rather than man. If the law says, I forbid you to practice Christianity or preach the gospel, we have to still practice Christianity, and still preach the gospel, because God's law is higher than man-made laws, human laws. So we do have a heavenly citizenship that transcends earthly citizenship; our ultimate allegiance is to God, to the word of God, to living a holy life, to preaching the gospel, and preparing for eternity. We cannot be an uncritical supporter of our nation.

Scriptures: Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11; Acts 5

Not Christian Nationalism: Safeguards and Boundaries

• He does not believe in so-called Christian nationalism. While he does want our nation to follow Christian values as much as possible, we live in a pluralistic society; he's not trying to impose all Christian holiness standards on a secular society — that would create chaos and conflict, and that's not feasible. He wants, as much as possible, to influence everyone around him to be Christians, and he wants our nation and our governments to follow godly values — but he's not trying to make America a Christian nation, as if that will save the world, or as if that will usher in the millennium. Our goal, our ultimate hope, is for Jesus Christ to come back, and that he will establish his kingdom on earth.
• So he doesn't accept Christian nationalism: he doesn't say that patriotism should be twisted into some support of national identity as our supreme identity, nor that we should try to force our way of life, or our national values, or even our Christian values, on other people and other nations — all those efforts are doomed to failure. What is proper is to love our country and pray for our country, but to criticize it when it's wrong, and to seek every means to correct whatever is wrong.
• He was raised in Korea, so he can look from a little different angle: there are some things about Korean culture that he thinks are better than American culture — like their respect for the elderly, and their pursuit of education, and their pursuit of hard work (America was founded on that, but in many ways we've lost that; Korea values the group). But then there are some things about America that he likes better than Korea and other countries — such as the supreme emphasis on democracy, individual rights, individual initiative, the individualism component, which can be taken to excess, but yet is a great part of what's made America great.
• So all cultures have special values, but all cultures have special flaws, including America — and the Bible would stand in judgment on all cultures. He doesn't believe in multiculturalism, in the sense of saying all cultures are equal — no, they're not. He thinks each nation should have its own identity, its own culture; and we as Christians have a biblical culture, and our biblical teachings trump every national culture. So we can and should be patriotic — but there have to be sharp safeguards and boundaries, where our Christian identity, and our worship of God, and our following God's word, are more important than any national value.

Scripture index: Psalm 122; Jeremiah 29:7; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11; Acts 5.