As we have seen over a number of weeks, the Bible contains images of the Church drawn from many common contexts. Last week we considered the image of the Church as a letter. Prior to that one we have thought about images from the pastoral arena (the Church as God’s flock) and agricultural life (the Church as God’s field). The religious realm furnished two images (the Church as a temple and as a priesthood). The biological area yields us the image of the Church as the body of Christ, while the sociological area gives us images of the Church as a household and as a bride. The political arena furnishes us two more images: the Church as “citizenry” or nation and the Church as “dispersion.” This week we think of the first of these.
Citizenship in heaven
Addressing Christians in ancient Philippi, Philippians 3:20 declares, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” The form of the Greek term for citizenship carries the idea of “place of citizenship.” That Greek word for place of citizenship “politeuma” is from the root word that gives English terms such as politics and political.
We might recall that Philippi was a Roman colony. As such, many Roman citizens made up its population. Thus Philippian Christians would have immediately understood the idea of being a resident of one city (Philippi) while holding citizenship in another (Rome). Given this situation, those Christians could readily identify with the truth of holding citizenship in heaven while yet living on earth.
In our day we also can understand the idea of being a citizen simultaneously of two countries. The United States allows dual citizenship with certain countries. For example a person born in our neighbor to the south is a native-born Mexican. If the person moves to the United States and becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen, that person could have dual citizenship. When noncitizens choose to meet the qualifications for citizenship, we might refer to them as naturalized citizens.
When we attend church next Sunday and look around at the gathered congregation we are beholding a group of “super-naturalized” citizens, members of a heavenly kingdom. Ephesians 2:19 puts it like this, “You are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints.”
With citizenship in heaven, Christians owe ultimate allegiance to the place of that citizenship. Jesus put it simply, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). Peter grasped this idea about his place of allegiance, declaring, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Ideally the Church honors and serves God through obedience to human laws, recognizing that human government exists by God’s permission. However, in instances when demands laid down by earthly laws conflict with God’s principles the Church’s higher loyalty lies with our heavenly place of citizenship.
The preferred way is for the Church’s obedience to earthly rulers and laws to reflect obedience to God. In short, being citizens of heaven should make us better citizens on earth. Being the best of citizens helps make us the best of witnesses and examples to others.
With our heavenly citizenship firmly in place, the Church lives with the awareness that many are living without such citizenship. Our mission is to help outsiders become insiders. As a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9) the Church makes up a citizenry with dual citizenship and, at the same time, we are concerned to help those who were not a people to become God’s people (1 Pet. 2:10).
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