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 Saviour 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. Philippians 3:18-21
What does it mean to be a citizen of
heaven? Does it mean we get a nice passport with the pearly gates on the front?
Does it mean our national citizenship is revoked? It can be a confusing phrase
but it’s an important one to understand what it means.
First a quick history lesson on Philippi.
Philippi was a town built on the site of the Thracian city of Krinides in 356BC
by Philip ll of Macedon.[1] In 168-167 BC the Romans defeated the Macedonians and took control
of Philippi. Following the assassination of Julius Caesar, his heirs Mark
Antony and Octavian defeated his assassins Brutus and Longinus at the Battle of
Philippi in 42BC. In the aftermath of the battle the victors colonised the city
with military veterans and renamed it Colonia Victrix Philippensium. In
30BC Octavian defeated Antony in a civil war, became emperor, bolstered the
colony of Philippi with more settlers, and bestowed the honour of ius
italicum upon the colony. The ius italicum, the highest honour a
Roman colony could receive, meant that Philippi was subject to Roman law, was
exempt from certain taxes, and its citizens gained Roman citizenship. Roman
citizens were granted many additional rights such as property ownership, voting
powers, the right to a trial, and immunity to torture, whipping, and the death
penalty.[2]
By all accounts the citizens of Philippi were immensely
proud of their Roman citizenship and the Roman laws and customs they had
inherited. Paul plays off of this pride in Philippians 3:20 (and in some
versions 1:27) by telling his readers that they are citizens of heaven. But
Paul is not saying this world is not my home, I’m just passing through as the
hymn states. Nor is it meant to be a comfort for the afterlife. No it is a
challenge to the church in Philippi, and in order to understand this we need to
understand how citizenship worked in ancient Rome.
What we don’t often pick up in our English Bibles is that
although citizen is a noun in English, the word Paul uses in the 1:27 occurrence
is a verb πολιτεύεσθε (politeuomai).
This word literally means “to live as a citizen” or in the context of the
passage “to conduct oneself”. We have to remember that Philippi was a Roman
colony and the purpose of Roman colonies was to Romanize the Greek areas they
were in. These citizens may never set foot in Rome but they understood that
they were to bring Rome and its culture to their setting. And in the same way
Paul is telling the church in Philippi that they are colonists for the Kingdom
of God and are called to spread the culture of this kingdom in the area by
living a life worthy of the Gospel they have received (1:27). This is why Paul
compares them to those who have their minds set on earthly things. In a culture
they celebrated sexual depravity, gluttony, and emperor worship, the believers
were called to be a witness for the Gospel and live by different values. Paul
is by no means commanding them to renounce their Roman citizenship but to be
prepared to be different and to suffer from it.
In the same way Christians are called to spread the Gospel
in their own cultures to transform the world. We are called to be radically
different in the way we conduct ourselves. We are called to live in an upside-down
kingdom where the king sacrificed Himself for his subjects and people strive to
put others ahead of them. This is what it means to be a citizen of heaven, not
an escapist fantasy, but a challenge to live differently.
No comments:
Post a Comment