“If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” These words from 1906, written by Mark Twain in Glances at History, have come alive again in recent years. In the 2007 “Amazing Spiderman #537,” Captain America quotes them to Spiderman with this addition, “Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world— ‘No, you move.’” While these words are striving to convey the deeper meaning of what it means to be a true patriot, which we would expect from Captain America, they have a message that rings out to the heart of Christian conviction.
It seems today that being a patriot that is proud of his/her country’s recent decisions has become increasingly difficult. Paul, a citizen of Rome, was not one to wave the Roman banner except when it would further the message of the gospel (Acts 16:37-40; 22:28). It is up to the individual to decide how they will be a patriot in the new Rome that we find ourselves in today. However, we as Christians understand that our citizenship is not of this world. We are citizens of the grand and eternal kingdom and heavenly city (John 18:36; Phil. 3:20; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 11:16). That is why these words—“the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences” and “tell the whole world, ‘No, you move’”—connect with us. As patriots of heaven, we are fighting a war for the souls of those around us, including our own (Eph. 6:10-17). The beach head and the trench are in the hearts and minds of those walking around us. We can labor in confidence because the message is effective (Heb. 4:12; Isa. 55:11). We can labor in confidence because He who promised is faithful (Heb. 10:23). We can labor in confidence knowing that our feet are planted by the river of truth. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away” (Psa. 1:2-4). God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness, even the power and conviction to say, “No, you move.”