This summer our country turns 250. It’s nothing like the bicentennial celebrations I remember as a child, but there are still parades and fireworks, extra flags on porches and arguments about what America is and ought to be. I love this country. I have also learned that loving it well is harder than it looks.

Part of the difficulty for Christians is that we have always carried two passports.

The apostle Paul, who was proud enough of his Roman citizenship to invoke it when it served him, reminded one group of new believers in the proud Greco-Roman city of Philippi that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). The letter to the Hebrews describes God’s people as “foreigners and strangers on earth” who are “looking for a country of their own,” a city “whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:13–16). And when Jesus himself was handed a coin stamped with Caesar’s face, he gave us the founding charter of our dual citizenship: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

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Steve Eng

Steven Eng serves as advocacy director for the National Association of Evangelicals, equipping pastors, nonprofit leaders and ministry leaders to exercise their God-given influence for the good of their communities and nation — rooted in the NAE’s foundational framework, “For the Health of the Nation.” An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, Eng brings both a shepherd’s heart and a seasoned policy voice to his work. He has spoken at more than 150 events nationwide and regularly engages leaders and legislators on Capitol Hill. Eng holds a degree in political science from St. Olaf College and an M.Div. from North Park Theological Seminary.