Over the years living in the face of American patriotism I have sometimes got myself into a little trouble. I suppose my words have not always been most helpfully selected, but I believe my intent has always had a strong biblical ground. My heart is for the church to grasp our identity with both hands. That identity can be explained by one name - Christ. Christ is our life, our goal, our hope, our mission, and our very identity. I suppose I have desired to have such a high view of the church's identity in Christ that it has disturbed me to see any evidence of a worldly, national identity competing with it. It's never my intent to be anti-American, but only ever my intent to be single-mindedly focused about the church grasping our identity in Christ as our towering priority.
If you were to read Genesis 10 and the 70 names that form the table of nations, you may instantly desire to find your identity somewhere in that list. We can become so obsessed with our earthly heritage and people spend lots of money to find the roots of their family tree. We have those roots in Genesis 10. Most people reading this blog are probably related to Japheth from whom comes the Indo-European nations. Ancestral lines can be matters of great importance to some, even producing quarrels. At one stage the Apostle Paul urged Timothy to deal with this in the church in Ephesus. 1Timothy 1:3-4 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
Perhaps it was a matter of pride for some to locate their heritage through the line of Abraham and eventually Shem in the list in Genesis 10. Perhaps they were trying to physically prove their status in the world as a higher status than the pagan nations. In Ephesus, the majority were not likely to find their lineage among the Jews. Paul, however, was suggesting that focusing on their physical lineage in the world was missing the point. Your physical heritage has only temporary value, but your spiritual family determines your eternity.
When Jesus prayed to the Father for those he came to save, his major concern was not their physical heritage in the world, but the fact that they have been saved out of the world. Jesus came not to give us a worldly identity but a heavenly one.
John 17:6-10 "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
Look at those last words in John 17:10. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Jesus has saved his church to be His and what is His is the Father's. We have been saved out of the world into a heavenly identity and a heavenly family. In Christ we have one Father in heaven.
Jesus said he did not pray for the world but for those he has saved out of the world. Surely that must tell the church that our towering priority of identity must by our heavenly citizenship in Christ rather than our citizenship in any earthly country.
I'm not against a healthy patriotism and thankfulness for the country in which God has placed us. I'm against any real competition with our heavenly patriotism for the Kingdom of Christ. For the church, the nations of the world are not our identity, they're our mission ground.