As I write this, one day before the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States, I find myself thinking about citizenship. Not the citizenship that’s been in the news lately, and that was the subject of a recent Supreme Court decision, but the citizenship I have as a son of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Philippi:
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! (Philippians 3:17-4:1).
There’s a reason Paul chose the language of citizenship. At the time this letter was written, most of the people living in the Roman empire were not citizens. The residents of Philippi, however, were. They weren’t just subjects of the Roman emperor; they were themselves Romans. They had a status that most others in the empire did not, and that status came with both rights and duties.
In the same way, the Philippian believers were citizens of heaven, even while they lived alongside a great many people who were not. This citizenship also came with both rights and duties. And that remains true for the followers of Jesus today. We are citizens of heaven, and we are waiting for our king to arrive and establish his rule over everything in the universe. What’s more, we know that when he arrives, he will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
It’s this promise of transformation, along with the promise of the resurrection of those believers who have already fallen asleep in the Lord, that is the basis for our hope. It’s by knowing where our citizenship lies, and what our destiny is, that we are able to “stand firm in the Lord”. That is, to live as followers of Jesus and citizens of heaven ought to live, rather than following the example of those who live only to please themselves. They are “enemies of the cross of Christ.”
Undeniably, that’s how many of us used to live. That’s how I used to live when I belonged to this world. But we do not belong to the world any longer; we belong to Christ. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” as Paul puts it. The children of God have no business living as if we were enemies of God.
That’s the contrast Paul sets out in this passage; the enemies of the cross, those who set their minds on worldly things and pursue only their own pleasures, or citizens of heaven, who have a duty to their king, who “live as we do,” Paul says, following his example, and the example of the other apostles. And in doing so, we become examples ourselves. Enemies or citizens; there’s no third way.
So on this Independence Day, I’ll celebrate my citizenship in the United States, but I’ll celebrate even more my citizenship in heaven. One comes with freedoms that are valuable in this world. The other has given me a much greater freedom, both in this world and in the one to come. And I’ll remember, also, that my citizenship in heaven comes with the responsibility to live up to the identity I have been given in Christ.