Our church supports a dozen missionaries around the world. Our missions coordinator is interviewing them on social media each month to help us understand how their efforts are impacting people around the globe.
The June “missionary of the month” was a young gal serving in the Middle East. Her name was not given and her face not shown in the interview to protect her identity, since she serves in a dangerous part of the world.
We watched an hour-long documentary detailing the work her missions organization is doing in several Middle Eastern countries. The stories were powerful. In one, three Palestinians described how they were raised to hate Jews and the Israeli nation. Yet when they were exposed to the Bible, they discovered that the living God is Jewish, and that He loves Israel. Somehow, God changed their hearts – and now these Palestinians love Israel, as God does.
If that’s not loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44), I don’t know what is.
As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, I think of people like these. A couple who are good friends from college have served as missionaries in the Ukraine for many years. Another friend we met when we lived west of Chicago for a year serves in the Philippines and other areas of the world.
As Christians, we don’t think outward nearly enough.
As Americans, we think the world revolves around us – and not just on the Fourth of July. I discovered this 30 years ago when, while I was visiting Mexico City, the United States invaded Iraq. In the U.S., the news coverage focused only on what government leaders in Washington, D.C., were thinking. In Mexico City, the TV station we watched showed brief reports from Tokyo, Bonn, London, Johannesburg, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, Washington, Mexico City, Bogota, and numerous other world capitals. A worldwide story demands worldwide exposure. We don’t get that here – because we don’t want it.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20
This is why I see a red flag (not a red, white and blue flag) when Christians mix faith and politics. We worship a God who is much bigger than that.
A good friend recently wore a T-shirt that says “JesUSAves”, with an American flag that replaced the stars with a cross. We can be very thankful to worship in a free country, and I’m sure that’s what my friend meant when he wore that shirt.
But it’s a small step to worship the flag with the cross in it – which many Christians do.
The United States is not “one nation under God” now. We are divided, and we are Gentiles. We can pursue Godly values through legal means, but if we stake our faith there, we’ve missed the point of who the living God is.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world.”
John 18:36
Jesus called himself a king, saying he rules a kingdom. He was not a politician, however. He did not gain power by coup (force), or by election. He was given that ruling authority by his father – and then was born as a baby, grew into adulthood and led with humility, service and conviction.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant fror your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
Romans 13:1-5
In the words of Brandon O’Brien, writing in Christianity Today, Romans 13 makes a lot of sense in American society. Here we enjoy the Constitutional separation of church and state, which means the government doesn’t meddle in religious affairs. We elect our officials to serve us — to do us good. And we can easily think of these civil servants as “God’s servants,” especially if they are Christians themselves. In fact, we can easily think of our nation as essentially Christian.
O’Brien continues:
Things were quite different in the Roman Empire when Paul wrote the Book of Romans. In Romans 13, Paul was referring to Roman authorities that were not friendly to Christianity. …
Polycarp, a disciple of John, is the best-known martyr of this period. Because he was an elderly and saintly man, the soldiers who arrested him wanted to give him a way out of his death penalty. So they told him all he had to do to escape death was declare, “Caesar is lord.” But Polycarp refused: “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” In other words, Polycarp knew that the New Testament commands that we submit to rulers, whether or not they protect our right to worship as we choose. Paul was arguing that Christians must submit to rulers, even when it costs us our life, even when those rulers oppose God’s plan.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17
Americans love “freedom,” but that’s a Biblical word – and it has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution. The Spirit of the Lord frees us from the power of sin by removing the veil of a hardened heart toward God. That’s what this verse describes, and that’s freedom.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:9-10
When time ends and Earth is no more, all nations will be represented in heaven. Nationalism will have no place there. All will worship God together, in unity, with one voice.
I can’t wait for that day.
Happy birthday, America. We do have plenty to celebrate.
I am grateful for you. But I will not worship you – or put you in a meme with a Bible verse. The United States is one part, one very small part, of God’s world.
the liberal conservative 