The greater reality as believers is that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God and of His Christ (Anointed King) and are therefore aliens in the world.
This first reality competes with a second one: we are temporary citizens of a country in this world and are not yet physically in the Kingdom of God as it will be when our King returns and sets it in order.
We should not be unconcerned for our temporary country where God has dropped us like seeds. We are there to show them Christ, to appeal to our countrymen to become eternal citizens of God’s Kingdom, and to prepare for the day when Christ will appear.
God has instructed us to involve ourselves in the lives of people around us in order to “shine as lights.” We are to “hold forth the word of truth” in a culture of lies. We should live in peace with its citizens, and submit to its leaders. If we cannot do so for conscience sake, we can at first appeal and graciously use the means the country has provided for our liberty, but when that fails we are to humbly receive its disfavor and even punishment like so many who went before us. We must do that joyfully, confident that we have our true citizenship in the other Kingdom. We are to love in return, and to overcome evil with good.
We are to pray for our earthly leaders because we desire their spiritual freedom from sin and that pacific culture where our message can be propagated without its hostility. But if hostility comes we will be true to Christ the greater King.
As long as is possible we can celebrate the liberty that our countrymen and forbears have provided for the free exercise of our other Kingdom convictions. It costs the lives of our relatives now gone. It is an amazing privilege to be free to speak and sing openly about Christ when the hearts of our countrymen are in majority unwilling to truly follow Him and act in rebellion against Him, as God has warned us in His word. Be thankful, even with grief, for the liberty we have today.
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