top of page
Search
  • dan7787

A Better Country: A Call to Responsible Patriotism


Christians have never belonged to a single nation, a single continent, ethnic group or even hemisphere. This is God's intention, and it is his design (Acts 1:8, Galatians 3:28). In history, whenever the Church forgets this, and we live as if God's people in Christ do belong to a single nation, continent or ethnic group, we find the Church at its worst: Drunk with power and authority and always attempting at reimagining whatever nation they find themselves in to become the "new promised land" where God truly dwells. In some shape or form, this has been unfortunately very common in the Western Hemisphere throughout Church History.


The Church was always intended to be homeless in this world. We're in the world but not of the world (John 15:19). This is intended to make Christians "strangers" even in their own national homeland, because we are living in permanent exile until Christ Jesus returns to this world (1 Peter 1:1).


I believe that we have a generation of work ahead of us in America to correct this. We've strayed too far from this path. In 2021, many of us have lost any sort of responsible vision for political participation, and we've owned our role in this American democracy with too much emotion and with too many strings of our hearts attached. We've owned it as if America is ours first and foremost.

We need to greet and receive America and all its glory, freedoms and even its democracy from afar. Yes it is a blessed country, but, as we could say, a blessed country with many extraordinary scars and failures throughout its history. America is a powerful myth, a strong and intimidating presence in the world full of riches, diversity and freedoms that the world has never known. In fact, through a study of history, it is very clear that America would have never been born if it were not for Christianity's presence in the West.


Yet, like Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, we need to learn to receive such a blessing from God as if it is just on the horizon, slightly out of our reach. The author of Hebrews speaks of the fulfillment of God's promises to these men as such - they were wonderful fulfillments indeed, but in the end, they actually were not the real thing.


[13] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:13-16, ESV)


Do you desire a better country? And no, I am not speaking of a better America. American Democracy demands that we always desire a better version of itself if we are to continue to survive into the next generation and beyond. I am speaking of a desire for an even better country - the country to come. The City of God. The place where there will be no more death, dying, weeping or mourning. A place of diversity, peace and harmony with no more enemies and no more division. The City of God where God will rule and reign over this world in perfection forever and ever, and humankind will find itself flourishing as God always intended us to do (Revelation 21-22).


To desire such a country is not a pursuit for escapism from the present. Rather, it is a call to bring a glimpse of this future Better Country into the present with a tempered vision. We know we cannot bring in the fullness of this future Kingdom, but we know that when the Body of Christ truly embodies Jesus and his life and how he lived, when we truly live the Resurrected Life (Colossians 3:1), the world finds itself living with a glimpse of this future Better Country even in its darkest corners. In this manner, do Christians find themselves in exile among their own native land, but with a shadow of our home in the present.


Can the American Church learn to do this? Can we pursue such a biblical vision into the next generation? Can we hold our America and all its glory at arms length, while holding Jesus Christ and his body on earth much closer? I leave you with a quote from the Epistle of Diognetus, a letter written very early on in our Church history. It served as an early apologetic to the faith to an unbeliever, and this is how the early church was described: "For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and refection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food but not their wives. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted.... (chapter 5, translation: Michael Holmes, Apostolic Fathers, 3rd Edition)








9 views0 comments
Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page