True Patriotism (and SRC July Schedule) (07/05/26)
…Recent years have brought the nations into closer contact with each other. Our own people (and today
especially) are scattered over the whole earth. And by the press and radio [and now internet] the news of the world is brought to everyone everywhere. We see, as we never did before, the problems of the world, the sufferings of other peoples and their need of help. And we too are suffering, and suffering particularly because of wars and the fear of future wars.
Under the Divine providence the nations are being brought together and the arguments for putting an end to war were never so strong and so convincing as they are today. It is a good sign that we are
beginning to look beyond our own borders and to take worldviews. A selfish nationalism is not true patriotism. We are beginning, slowly and somewhat reluctantly, to see that our national interests should not be in conflict with the interests of other nations and people. We have doubtless made many mistakes and shall make many more, but we [need to learn] to see ourselves as others see us, and [learn] slowly to cooperate in larger ways than before have been dreamed of.
[This time we set aside] is coming more and more to have within it the hope for a
universal peace, when people “will study war no more.” The race to accumulate invincible armaments is a mad race. Its goal is unattainable, and it can end only in ruin. There are very strong economic reasons for not entering into such a race, but the economic factor is not the primary one and of itself can never succeed in leading the nations to abandon war. Peace cannot be attained by any economic or civil adjustment. It depends upon the development of an unselfish spirit, the spirit of brother
[and sister] hood among nations and peoples. This means that we should regard the welfare of the world as above the advantage of anyone.
There is, I believe, a general and growing recognition of this fact, and it is to the Church that we must look for the origin and development of this spirit of brotherhood which alone can make peace possible. We read, "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish" (Isaiah 60:12). "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:3-4).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Savior of humankind. There is no other. It is His spirit going forth into the world which illumines, strengthens, protects, and blesses us. The trouble is that people only half-believe in the Scriptures, and instead of looking to the Lord, they look to external devices and expedients to attain their purposes. Our commerce, our inventiveness, our efficiency, our education, our culture all ought to lead us to happier and more
beautiful lives. Like trees they should yield their fruits. But they do not yield their fruits. For some reason the leaves wither and the fruits are bitter: rivalries, commercial warfare, strikes, poverty, and war.
The Church itself has a responsibility for the success of the efforts toward world peace. It cannot settle economic problems which arise and which require much study and wisdom to solve. But it can stand for and help to develop that spirit in which alone a settlement of difficulties is possible and from which comes wisdom in our natural
affairs.
There are laws which are the prime requisite of true
prosperity, of true humanity, of all happiness and peace. These laws are in the Lord's Word which He has put in our hands and which He has caused to be spread throughout the world. We love our country when we defend it against external enemies, true, but that is only a part of true patriotism. Love of our country means primarily seeking to have the Lord's laws established in the minds and hearts of its people.
The fundamental laws of all good life are summed up in the two great commandments. People have never been able to dispute successfully the truth of
these laws. People never have really challenged the wisdom of them. They have only failed to live according to them. All lasting good and peace does depend upon a genuine love to the Lord and to the neighbor.
We should ourselves
believe this. We should teach our children to love their country and inspire in them the desire to serve it and to make it an increasingly better country in which to live. So too we should teach them that without love to the Lord and the neighbor there is no safeguard to their own security and happiness nor any safeguard to the security of our nation, or to life in this world, or to happiness and peace in the world to come.
Without knowledge of the Lord and obedience to His Word there is no security. Love to the Lord is the tree of life whose
leaves are for the healing of the nations. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy: soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law all the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40). (NCL, Bill Woofenden)
