CITIZENSHIP IS OFTEN DEFINED as holding the status of membership of a nation. Citizens are granted certain rights, privileges, and protections by the state to which they owe allegiance and duty. While citizens may have the right to vote for elected officials and make certain requests of those officials, they may also be conscripted into that nation’s military and be required to observe certain laws. Being a citizen involves both push and pull between an individual and the state.
Being a citizen of a given nation is also one of the primary markers of one’s identity. This may be most vividly expressed through the Olympic Games. During the opening ceremonies, members of each nation’s team, blanketed by their country’s colors, march into an arena as their national anthem blares through the speakers and the faithful cheer them on from all corners of the globe. Pride and patriotism are the banners flying high in the hearts of the citizens of the world’s nations.
As Christians, we have a sort of dual citizenship. We are members of a particular country – the United States, Mexico, Kenya – but we also have membership in a celestial community. Paul told the church at Philippi that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Though he was not calling the Philippian Christians to renounce their Roman citizenship or to rebel against Caesar, Paul wanted them to remember that their ultimate allegiance was to a heavenly commonwealth where the Lord Jesus Christ reigns. As believers living in the city of Philippi they formed a colony of another kingdom on earth. They were an outpost of heaven.
From a spiritual standpoint, followers of Christ are foreigners/exiles in the nations in which they live. The cultural norms within most countries are often opposed to or even hostile toward the values of God’s people. Paul wrote that many of those who lived in Philippi walked “as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds that are set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:18-19). So, when Paul declared that the Philippian Christians have a celestial citizenship, he was seeking to redirect their focus from earth to heaven. He wanted them to be more concerned with the things of Jesus than the things of Caesar. Paul desired that they live more like a “righteous” son of God and less like a “good” child of the Empire. He was hoping to persuade them to place their primary allegiance and find their principal identity in the kingdom of God, not in Rome.
God’s call for us is the same today. The Lord wants us to view our identity first and foremost through the lens of being a Christian whose true citizenship is elsewhere.
Only secondarily should our identity be influenced by our national citizenship, party affiliation, or ethnic background. Unfortunately, too many Christians have a misplaced understanding of their dual citizenship. Some embrace all kinds of cultural norms that are driven by earthly passions, forgetting their call to live holy lives. Others go to the opposite extreme by denying all earthly affiliations and thus rejecting their role as citizens within a nation-state. Still others seek to bring the two distinct types of citizenship together into some wretched amalgamation that approximates God and country.
There is a better way! May our lives as citizens of heaven (who happen to live on earth) look like those Olympic athletes at the opening ceremonies. May we march through the “arena” of life clothed in “colors” that clearly represent Christ – love, grace, peace, holiness, and joy – longing for the anthem of “Amazing Grace” to be played as we join an incredible cadre of “athletes” running the race until the games are finished and the Master of Ceremonies returns. This was Paul’s hope for the Church in Philippi, and it is the Lord’s desire for his Church in America.
PRAYER
Father, I know I am a citizen of heaven by your grace. You alone gave me “the right to become a child of God” and, thus, a member of your kingdom (John 1:12). While I am here on earth, help me to live according to the values of our “family” and not according to the ways of the world. I pray that as an ambassador of Christ I might so well represent your kingdom that others around me might request citizenship under your reign with all the rights, privileges, and protections you bring. Amen.
PONDER
- The kingdom of God is ruled by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. How does the character of his leadership compel you to offer your full allegiance?
- As you consider your citizenship in heaven, what rights, privileges, and protections are you most thankful for?
- What misunderstanding of Christian dual citizenship are you most in danger of falling into? How can you best correct that?