Well, next Tuesday we celebrate July 4th, Independence Day as it's known for us in the United States here and the day itself raises questions about national loyalty for those of us who are Christians, who are strangers and exiles, aliens, pilgrims in this earth. Pilgrims and patriots, that was our topic back in years past, back in episode number 378 we talked about that.

But this year we want to take a closer look at patriotism in the local church and the time seems right to pick up this important email from a pastor named Scott who writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, are there any acceptable displays of patriotism in a church service?

I was brought up in a very conservative and patriotic background in which every patriotic holiday was celebrated in a Sunday church service, including 4th of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, the anniversary of 9/11, etc. Events like pledging the flag and singing patriotic songs were heavily used. Is this okay?

I pastor a church that has a history of this, but it makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Pastor John, what would you say to Scott?" Scott, I've been in several churches recently, not just growing up, especially in the South, I'm thinking, because that's just my experience, where on the 4th of July the focus on the branches of the armed forces seemed to me uninformed, unshaped by the radical nature of the gospel, and out of proportion to the relationship between America and the kingdom of Christ, and so I share your discomfort.

Indeed, it is more than discomfort, I think. There are real biblical principles at stake, and so it will be helpful, I think, to face those principles, and then we'll see if there's time to deal with practical transition issues in a church. So let me say a word about principles.

One, when we're born again, we are united to Christ, our King, and we are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God so that now it can be said with glorious and profound reality, our citizenship is in heaven, Philippians 3.20. Number two, therefore, wherever we live on earth, whatever country, whatever tribe, whatever family or clan, we are in all of that pilgrims, sojourners, refugees, exiles.

Our first identity is with the King of the universe, not any country or nationality or political party or governmental regime. America is emphatically not our primary home or primary identity. That should be spoken, it should be felt, and it should be precious. We should never be ashamed of identifying first and foremost as citizens of the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven.

Number three, Jesus Christ, therefore, is our absolute Lord. We swear absolute allegiance to him and to no one and nothing else. All other commitments are relativized. To be sure, citizens should submit to the laws of their government. Employees should submit to the rules of the employer. Wives should submit to husbands.

Children should submit to parents. Church members should submit to the elders of the church. But none of these commitments of submission is absolute. All of those authorities are subordinate and secondary to the authority of Christ, and therefore, all submission is qualified. Submission over every commitment for the Christian is unless Jesus commands otherwise.

Number four, therefore, there's no unqualified allegiance to any political party, any nationality or any ethnicity or any tribal identity or any branch of the armed service. It is all qualified. It is all secondary. It is all relative to the will of Christ. We should not say anything or do anything that looks as though that were not true.

Five, therefore, the question of what to do when the people of God are gathered to worship Jesus Christ on the Lord's Day is not merely a question of whether a particular act is permissible in general with all of those qualifications that I just mentioned, but whether it belongs in a worship service where the focus is on the absolute lordship of Jesus and worshiping and praising and honoring him.

My own opinion is that any pledge of allegiance, like the one to the American flag, does not belong in a worship service that's called to the highlighting of the absolute allegiance that we have to Jesus, even though the pledge says that the nation is under God. Nevertheless, what is being highlighted and foregrounded is an earthly allegiance, and the recitation of a pledge to a human authority in the setting of the worship of divine authority does not provide for the kind of Christian qualifications and nuances that are so necessary precisely in our day.

Number six, whenever Christians pay tribute to earthly blessings like American freedoms, which are wonderful, and the sacrifices made to have them, and the people who made those sacrifices, the emphasis should be on humble thankfulness to God, who is great and in his great mercy has given us what we don't deserve.

When he gave them, we didn't deserve them. We don't deserve them at this moment that we're enjoying them, and therefore words and songs should have no triumphalist or assertive tone, especially not for any military expression, but rather should have a feel of humility and lowliness and dependence and thankfulness, along with a suitable call to repentance and need for ongoing mercy.

And the last thing I would say, number seven, in and over everything we do and say in our worship services, especially the ones that give thanks for American blessings and privileges, there should be the dominant expression of the work of Jesus Christ, the gospel, to forgive American sins and American sinners like us, and a call to make Jesus supreme in this particular service we are in and over the hearts of the people and over the land.

Now those are some of the biblical principles that I think should shape our expressions of thankfulness for America in worship. And I realize now I'm out of time and I haven't even touched on what is probably this pastor's most painful situation is. I've inherited a church where things don't seem to be in proper proportion, and I'd like some practical help.

And so I'm going to do that in another APJ. Yeah, let's go ahead and plan on doing that Friday, Pastor John. And thanks for the question, Scott. We'll be back to address it more next time. As you can hear, we're working through some audio issues on Pastor John's end, and thank you for your patience as we work through those.

You can subscribe to the audio feed, so you can search our episode archive, and you can even reach us by email with a difficult question you may be facing in life or in your local church. Do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. We'll return Friday to look at the practicals of what we introduced here.

We'll see you then. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Friday. Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2 Desiring God.org Page 1 of 2