Pilgrims and Patriots
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | (fireworks exploding)
00:00:07.840 | - Today is July 4th,
00:00:13.320 | Independence Day here in the United States,
00:00:15.960 | and it sounds a lot like that outside right now.
00:00:19.640 | And Matt, a podcast listener, writes in to ask this,
00:00:22.760 | "Pastor John, obviously as Christians,
00:00:24.760 | "we are to live as strangers, exiles, aliens,
00:00:27.820 | "and pilgrims on this earth.
00:00:29.860 | "Is there an appropriate place in the Christian life
00:00:31.620 | "for patriotism?"
00:00:33.320 | - Yes, there is.
00:00:34.840 | And it's right, we are pilgrims.
00:00:37.600 | We're called exiles, we're refugees,
00:00:39.960 | we're sojourners, 1 Peter 2.
00:00:42.320 | Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles,
00:00:45.560 | abstain from the passions that wage war
00:00:48.140 | against your flesh, or Philippians 3,
00:00:51.080 | our citizenship is in heaven,
00:00:52.960 | so the question is framed rightly.
00:00:56.460 | We are citizens of heaven.
00:00:58.920 | We are sojourners and pilgrims on the earth.
00:01:03.920 | And that's owing to the fact that this world is fallen,
00:01:08.580 | not the fact that it's created.
00:01:11.440 | We're gonna spend eternity in a created world,
00:01:15.160 | but Satan won't be the god of that world anymore.
00:01:17.720 | That's what makes us feel so alien here,
00:01:19.900 | is that the god of this world is Satan.
00:01:22.480 | He holds such extensive sway,
00:01:24.800 | the world is permeated with sin.
00:01:26.400 | It makes us feel like we're not at home,
00:01:28.280 | we're just aching that we be done with sin
00:01:30.440 | and be in the presence of holiness.
00:01:32.560 | So when I say we're aliens and exiles
00:01:36.040 | and sojourners and pilgrims,
00:01:38.480 | I don't mean that the earth is a place we despise,
00:01:41.800 | I mean that the structures we find ourselves in
00:01:45.680 | are so permeated with sin, we want something new.
00:01:49.440 | However, God means for us to be enmeshed in this world.
00:01:57.040 | We are not of the world, but we are in the world
00:02:01.960 | and we're supposed to be in it.
00:02:03.520 | We're in a city and we're in a state
00:02:06.560 | and we're in a country and we're in a continent.
00:02:10.520 | And if I ask, now what is patriotism in this enmeshment?
00:02:15.520 | My answer is that patriotism is a special love
00:02:21.320 | for fatherland, could be a city,
00:02:24.160 | might love your city in a special way,
00:02:26.580 | a state, a country, a tribe, an ethnicity.
00:02:31.040 | And that love is different from the general love
00:02:34.960 | that Christians have for everybody or for the whole earth.
00:02:39.280 | And the reason I think that's true,
00:02:41.760 | that there is and it's good that there is
00:02:45.280 | special affections for our homeland
00:02:49.840 | is that the Bible seems to point in that direction
00:02:54.160 | in several ways.
00:02:55.440 | Here's an example.
00:02:57.060 | Paul in Galatians 6 said, "As you have opportunity,
00:03:01.420 | "do good to everyone, especially to those
00:03:05.120 | "who are of the household of faith."
00:03:07.220 | It's as though there's this specialness
00:03:09.580 | about those that are close to you
00:03:11.460 | and there's a kind of affection for them that is different.
00:03:15.560 | Or 1 Timothy 5, verse eight,
00:03:18.980 | "If anyone does not provide for his relatives
00:03:22.380 | "and especially for the members of his household,
00:03:26.180 | "he's denied the faith."
00:03:27.420 | So it seems like it's right not just to have this
00:03:31.460 | general love spread over the whole world
00:03:33.900 | and everybody has exactly the same affections from us,
00:03:38.300 | but rather there's an especially.
00:03:40.180 | And we know that Paul in Romans 9 said that
00:03:44.140 | if he could, he'd be accursed and cut off from Christ
00:03:48.300 | for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen,
00:03:51.100 | according to the flesh.
00:03:52.160 | So there's something about this fleshness,
00:03:55.340 | this being bound together in a family way
00:03:59.260 | or a cultural way with a group that makes us love them
00:04:04.220 | with an unusual kind of affection.
00:04:06.380 | And as I was thinking about it,
00:04:08.360 | Lewis, C.S. Lewis gave me some help
00:04:11.580 | because Lewis wrote this book, "The Four Loves,"
00:04:15.540 | and philos, friendship, and eros, sex,
00:04:21.140 | and agape, the love of God.
00:04:24.640 | And the one that I think is relevant here is storge.
00:04:28.720 | Storge is affection.
00:04:31.680 | It's what you feel for a pair of slippers
00:04:35.440 | that your wife thinks you should have thrown away
00:04:38.160 | a long time ago, but they fit just right.
00:04:42.120 | Or an old raggedy doll that a kid wants to keep
00:04:45.920 | even though it's just no good for anything except that kid.
00:04:49.340 | Or a sweater with holes in it that you've worn to read
00:04:52.320 | and study in for years.
00:04:54.400 | Or an old tree where you carved your initials
00:04:57.680 | as a young couple and you just love to go back to that tree.
00:05:01.280 | You love to watch that tree.
00:05:02.780 | That tree means more than other trees.
00:05:05.400 | Or the lagoon where Noelle and I were engaged
00:05:09.440 | has a special place.
00:05:11.160 | So there's a kind of affection for a tree and for a city
00:05:17.160 | and for a fatherland, a language, a culture.
00:05:19.980 | Why?
00:05:20.820 | Because it fits you.
00:05:23.180 | When you leave it, get on a plane, go to another country,
00:05:27.100 | there can be excitement and challenge and stimulation.
00:05:30.380 | You may even find those other cultures superior
00:05:33.300 | in some ways to your own.
00:05:35.720 | But when you come home, it fits like the slippers fit.
00:05:40.720 | It's just full of good associations like that tree
00:05:44.220 | where you carved your initials.
00:05:47.220 | So it seems to me that this is good
00:05:52.180 | and the goodness is implied in those especialties
00:05:56.400 | in the Bible.
00:05:57.240 | God created us to be in skin and in languages
00:06:01.500 | and in cultures.
00:06:03.100 | He doesn't mean for us to despise our skin
00:06:07.280 | and our languages and our cultures,
00:06:10.120 | but to be at home in them and to feel good about them.
00:06:12.940 | And when I think of other passages
00:06:16.720 | that point in the direction of patriotism,
00:06:19.540 | Romans 13 surely implies some kind of patronism
00:06:24.540 | because Romans 13, when it says submit to those in authority
00:06:29.160 | implies that a government, a country, a state
00:06:34.000 | has the right to use the sword to maintain order
00:06:38.640 | and to defend itself against aggression.
00:06:40.880 | And if it does, that means God is saying
00:06:43.640 | it has a right to be.
00:06:45.160 | And if it has a right to be and to preserve what it is,
00:06:48.660 | then the people who live there give approval to that.
00:06:51.960 | They say, we like that, we're glad that we are
00:06:55.400 | and that we are culturally the way we are.
00:06:58.280 | And they can say that without putting down other cultures.
00:07:01.600 | You don't have to be negative about England
00:07:04.520 | because you're pro-America in the sense of loving
00:07:08.320 | some of the distinctives that God has made in this place.
00:07:12.640 | So I think I would probably wrap it up by saying
00:07:16.240 | whatever form your patriotism takes,
00:07:19.720 | let it be with a deep sense that we are more closely bound
00:07:24.720 | to brothers in Christ in other countries and other cultures
00:07:30.120 | than we are to our closest unbelieving compatriot
00:07:34.400 | in the fatherland.
00:07:35.640 | God is our King and no man,
00:07:38.880 | his kingdom is our final allegiance.
00:07:41.240 | But under that banner, it is right to be thankful
00:07:46.240 | that God gave us our land freely,
00:07:49.120 | thankful that people paid a high price to preserve it
00:07:52.320 | and thankful that we have these slippers
00:07:55.320 | that feel so comfortable.
00:07:56.980 | - Thank you for that Independence Day reminder, Pastor John.
00:08:00.520 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:08:02.240 | You can follow our daily podcast with a free app
00:08:04.860 | for the iPhone and the Android.
00:08:06.800 | And during this extended holiday weekend,
00:08:08.680 | it may be a good time for you to stop in
00:08:10.180 | and visit us online at desiringgod.org.
00:08:12.840 | There you will find thousands of books,
00:08:14.600 | articles, sermons, and other resources,
00:08:16.160 | all free of charge from John Piper
00:08:18.440 | and all intended to help explain
00:08:19.860 | why God is most glorified in us
00:08:21.560 | when we are most satisfied in him.
00:08:24.640 | Well, speaking of the British,
00:08:26.500 | next week we will welcome a guest to the podcast,
00:08:28.660 | Michael Reeves, who is a theologian in the UK.
00:08:32.040 | Mike is also a historian and we'll ask him
00:08:34.240 | what we can learn from the Puritans and from John Calvin.
00:08:37.400 | I'll ask him how the tradition of praying to Mary
00:08:39.780 | developed in the Roman Catholic tradition.
00:08:42.160 | And we'll talk about precious topics
00:08:43.720 | like union with Christ and joy in Christ.
00:08:46.680 | That's all next week.
00:08:47.760 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:08:48.800 | Enjoy your Independence Day.
00:08:50.360 | And for you listeners in the States,
00:08:52.120 | enjoy your extended weekend.
00:08:53.800 | (upbeat music)
00:08:56.380 | (upbeat music)
00:08:58.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]