Patriotism and the Christian
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Today is July 4th, which is Independence Day
00:00:07.380 | here in the United States,
00:00:08.520 | and Matt writes in to ask this question.
00:00:11.040 | Obviously as Christians,
00:00:12.180 | we are to live as pilgrims on this earth.
00:00:14.060 | Is there an appropriate place in the Christian life
00:00:16.800 | for patriotism?
00:00:18.060 | - Yes, there is.
00:00:20.440 | And it's right, we are pilgrims.
00:00:23.200 | We're called exiles, we're refugees,
00:00:25.560 | we're sojourners, 1 Peter 2.
00:00:27.920 | Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles,
00:00:31.200 | abstain from the passions that wage war
00:00:33.760 | against your flesh, or Philippians 3,
00:00:36.720 | our citizenship is in heaven.
00:00:38.580 | So the question is framed rightly.
00:00:42.080 | We are citizens of heaven.
00:00:44.520 | We are sojourners and pilgrims on the earth.
00:00:49.520 | And that's owing to the fact that this world is fallen,
00:00:54.160 | not the fact that it's created.
00:00:57.040 | We're gonna spend eternity in a created world,
00:01:00.720 | but Satan won't be the God of that world anymore.
00:01:03.320 | That's what makes us feel so alien here
00:01:05.480 | is that the God of this world is Satan.
00:01:08.080 | He holds such extensive sway.
00:01:10.360 | The world is permeated with sin.
00:01:12.000 | It makes us feel like we're not at home.
00:01:13.880 | We're just aching that we be done with sin
00:01:16.000 | and be in the presence of holiness.
00:01:18.120 | So when I say we're aliens and exiles
00:01:21.600 | and sojourners and pilgrims,
00:01:24.080 | I don't mean that the earth is a place we despise.
00:01:27.400 | I mean that the structures we find ourselves in
00:01:31.280 | are so permeated with sin, we want something new.
00:01:35.000 | However, God means for us to be enmeshed in this world.
00:01:40.000 | We are not of the world, but we are in the world,
00:01:47.560 | and we're supposed to be in it.
00:01:49.120 | We're in a city and we're in a state,
00:01:52.120 | and we're in a country and we're in a continent.
00:01:56.120 | And if I ask, now what is patriotism in this enmeshment?
00:02:01.120 | My answer is that patriotism is a special love
00:02:06.880 | for fatherland, could be a city,
00:02:09.720 | might love your city in a special way,
00:02:12.160 | a state, a country, a tribe, an ethnicity.
00:02:16.600 | And that love is different from the general love
00:02:20.520 | that Christians have for everybody or for the whole earth.
00:02:24.840 | And the reason I think that's true,
00:02:27.320 | that there is and it's good that there is
00:02:30.840 | special affections for our homeland,
00:02:35.400 | is that the Bible seems to point in that direction
00:02:39.740 | in several ways.
00:02:41.000 | Here's an example.
00:02:42.640 | Paul in Galatians 6 said, "As you have opportunity,
00:02:47.000 | "do good to everyone, especially to those
00:02:50.720 | "who are of the household of faith."
00:02:52.840 | It's as though there's this specialness
00:02:55.180 | about those that are close to you,
00:02:57.080 | and there's a kind of affection for them that is different.
00:03:01.180 | Or 1 Timothy 5, verse eight,
00:03:04.580 | "If anyone does not provide for his relatives,
00:03:08.000 | "and especially for the members of his household,
00:03:11.800 | "he's denied the faith."
00:03:13.000 | So it seems like it's right,
00:03:15.240 | not just to have this general love
00:03:18.160 | spread over the whole world,
00:03:19.600 | and everybody has exactly the same affections from us,
00:03:23.920 | but rather there's an especially.
00:03:25.800 | And we know that Paul in Romans 9 said that
00:03:29.720 | if he could, he'd be accursed and cut off from Christ
00:03:33.920 | for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen,
00:03:36.720 | according to the flesh.
00:03:37.780 | So there's something about this fleshness,
00:03:40.960 | this being bound together in a family way
00:03:44.880 | or a cultural way with a group that makes us love them
00:03:49.840 | with an unusual kind of affection.
00:03:52.000 | And as I was thinking about it,
00:03:53.960 | Lewis, C.S. Lewis gave me some help
00:03:57.200 | because Lewis wrote this book, "The Four Loves,"
00:04:01.160 | and philos, friendship, and eros, sex,
00:04:06.160 | and agape, the love of God.
00:04:09.920 | And the one that I think is relevant here is storge.
00:04:14.320 | Storge is affection.
00:04:17.280 | It's what you feel for a pair of slippers
00:04:21.040 | that your wife thinks you should have thrown away
00:04:23.760 | a long time ago, but they fit just right.
00:04:27.720 | Or an old raggedy doll that a kid wants to keep
00:04:31.480 | even though it's just no good for anything except that kid.
00:04:34.920 | Or a sweater with holes in it
00:04:36.760 | that you've worn to read and study in for years.
00:04:40.000 | Or an old tree where you carved your initials
00:04:43.280 | as a young couple and you just love to go back to that tree.
00:04:46.880 | You love to watch that tree.
00:04:48.360 | That tree means more than other trees.
00:04:51.000 | Or the lagoon where Noelle and I were engaged
00:04:55.040 | has a special place.
00:04:56.760 | So there's a kind of affection for a tree
00:05:01.040 | or a sweater or slippers, and for a city,
00:05:06.000 | and for a fatherland, a language, a culture.
00:05:08.840 | Why?
00:05:09.680 | Because it fits you.
00:05:12.000 | When you leave it, get on a plane, go to another country,
00:05:15.920 | there could be excitement and challenge and stimulation.
00:05:19.200 | You may even find those other cultures superior
00:05:22.120 | in some ways to your own.
00:05:24.560 | But when you come home, it fits like the slippers fit.
00:05:29.560 | It's just full of good associations
00:05:32.240 | like that tree where you carved your initials.
00:05:36.040 | So it seems to me that this is good
00:05:41.000 | and the goodness is implied in those especiallys
00:05:45.240 | in the Bible.
00:05:46.080 | God created us to be in skin and in languages
00:05:50.320 | and in cultures.
00:05:51.920 | He doesn't mean for us to despise our skin
00:05:56.120 | and our languages and our cultures,
00:05:58.960 | but to be at home in them and to feel good about them.
00:06:01.800 | And when I think of other passages
00:06:05.560 | that point in the direction of patriotism,
00:06:08.360 | Romans 13 surely implies some kind of patronism
00:06:13.360 | because Romans 13, when it says submit to those in authority
00:06:18.000 | implies that a government, a country, a state
00:06:22.840 | has the right to use the sword to maintain order
00:06:27.480 | and to defend itself against aggression.
00:06:29.720 | And if it does, that means God is saying
00:06:32.480 | it has a right to be.
00:06:34.760 | And if it has a right to be and to preserve what it is,
00:06:38.240 | then the people who live there give approval to that.
00:06:41.560 | They say, we like that, we're glad that we are
00:06:44.960 | and that we are culturally the way we are.
00:06:47.880 | And they can say that without putting down other cultures.
00:06:51.160 | You don't have to be negative about England
00:06:54.080 | because you're pro-America in the sense of loving
00:06:57.900 | some of the distinctives that God has made in this place.
00:07:02.200 | So I think I would probably wrap it up by saying
00:07:05.800 | whatever form your patriotism takes,
00:07:09.280 | let it be with a deep sense that we are more closely bound
00:07:14.280 | to brothers in Christ in other countries and other cultures
00:07:19.680 | than we are to our closest unbelieving compatriot
00:07:23.960 | in the fatherland.
00:07:25.200 | God is our King and no man,
00:07:28.440 | his kingdom is our final allegiance.
00:07:30.800 | But under that banner, it is right to be thankful
00:07:35.800 | that God gave us our land freely,
00:07:38.680 | thankful that people paid a high price to preserve it
00:07:41.880 | and thankful that we have these slippers
00:07:44.900 | that feel so comfortable.
00:07:46.960 | - That's a wonderful reminder for us
00:07:48.640 | on this Independence Day in the United States.
00:07:50.800 | Thank you, Pastor John,
00:07:51.840 | and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:07:54.040 | Please email your questions to us
00:07:55.320 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:07:57.160 | At desiringgod.org, you will find thousands of free books,
00:08:00.320 | articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper.
00:08:03.280 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:08:04.200 | Thanks for listening.
00:08:05.240 | (upbeat music)
00:08:07.820 | (upbeat music)
00:08:10.400 | [BLANK_AUDIO]