Citizens of Heaven
With the United States hosting the World Cup this year, social media accounts have been deluged with videos of people from other countries who seem to be having the time of their lives here in the Land of Liberty. Many are discovering, for the first time, some of our country's more attractive features like free soda refills, melt-in-your-mouth BBQ, breathtaking scenery, and the propensity for baseball fans to break into a rousing, off-key rendition of "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth inning.
Then there are the fans who make their citizenship known through novel dress and behavior. No one can mistake the men wearing kilts and playing bagpipes on the streets of Boston for anything other than Scottish soccer fans. Or the Norwegian fans performing the "Viking Row," where hundreds of people, dressed in red jerseys and sitting shoulder to shoulder, mimic rowing in unison as they chant "Ro!" which, as you might guess, is Norwegian for "row."
And that got me thinking about citizenship. While we may hold a passport to a specific country, for the Christian believer, our citizenship lies elsewhere:
Phil 3:20 (NASB)
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
The immediate context of Philippians 3:20 sets up a contrast between those who fix their minds (thinking) on earthly things and Christian saints, who fix their minds on heavenly matters. Because we are citizens of heaven, not just citizens of the United States, Scotland, or Finland, we think differently about our identity. We are citizens of heaven, and so our thoughts are more preoccupied with heavenly matters. As one writer put it, Christian believers "cultivate the mindset of expatriates." In other words, while we live here on earth, we don't get caught up in things of this earth; we don't allow our thoughts to be consumed with earthly matters, because our true citizenship is in heaven. Our time on earth is finite, whereas our time in the heavens is eternal. Where should we, then, put our focus, our thoughts, our energies?
Let's not forget that it is from heaven that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, will come to gather together the saints. And that's when the true party starts, so to speak!
