Are You Too Patriotic?

Some people have American flag pajamas. You know it’s true. Red, white, and blue attire knows no bounds. When you see such garb, do you think it’s a bit much? Maybe too patriotic? Perhaps you do; that tends to be my opinion. However, this is probably the most unimportant metric of patriotism and its excesses. 

Ultimately, the question of whether a person is too patriotic only finds its answer by measuring personal loyalties against one’s commitment to the Kingdom of God.

Now don’t get it twisted: patriotism and Kingdom citizenship do not stand in necessary opposition. I love my family and I love God and His Kingdom. I love God more, but this is the only way in which I could also love my family more. So it is with my country. I love Christ more, but this is the only way in which I could love America more.  

The lies of the Devil are destructive. I cannot love my family or my country by loving the lies they may embrace. I can only love them in truth. God does not make me choose between Him and my family or Him and my country. I will love both in the true fashion of a patriot. But the love of God can appear like hate and betrayal in the eyes of the world. 

This is what the Lord Jesus means when he tells us:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. [Luke 14:26 ESV]

The Kingdom of Jesus is strange to this world. You can know you are too patriotic if you never risk being called a traitor. If you never give occasion for being called hateful. If you love the political dogma more than the Gospel of the Kingdom.

A Jewish lawyer wondered who should be included among his neighbors; he knew he must love his neighbors. Jesus told him the most traitorous parable, depicting a Jew and Samaritan as neighbors. Even worse, the Samaritan was the hero, the good guy, while the Jew was some poor helpless thing. Jesus said other terrible things, crediting a Roman centurion with more faith than anyone else in Israel and saying taxes were owed to the Gentile tyrants. Worst of all, Jesus said he would tear the temple down. He did say he would rebuild it...but how hateful to threaten its destruction in the first place!

Did Jesus love Israel? Most certainly - he died for her and the whole world. Yet he appeared hateful. In reality, he was most patriotic. Perhaps it is sloppy to say someone is too patriotic. You cannot be too much of a good thing, you can only neglect some other good. Let it be called “patriotic disorder.”

Q: What is the course of treatment for patriotic disorder?

A: Kingdom order

A person with patriotic disorder only loves her countrymen. The rest of the world can be damned (literally) or at least enjoy a living hell on earth. The world is nothing but strangers. Kingdom order makes every man, woman, and child our neighbor. The more our loyalty is planted in the City of God the more our love grows for those inside and outside her walls, because all are welcome even if all will not enter.

Patriotic disorder leads to obsessive fear that current political circumstances are eternal, resulting in compulsive forms of verbal bile and foolish actions. Kingdom order brings to memory that “Christ has died...Christ is Risen...Christ is Coming Again” and that every knee shall bow.

Patriotic disorder leads to manic construction of earthly temples for the salvation of mankind. Kingdom order points us to the heavenly temple, where our salvation is secure and from which our Savior will come to save his people.

Are you too patriotic? Maybe that is the wrong question. A patriot loves her country and wants the best for it. Can anything good for our country come from the symptoms of patriotic disorder? No – any good seed will be torn down by the tares of destruction sown alongside it. I won’t be wearing the pajamas. They are yours for the taking. Just know what you’re putting on, always putting your first foot in the Kingdom and your second in everything else. See your pastor if you think you are experiencing symptoms of patriotic disorder.