Daily Bread

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

What Paul is saying is that we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are to live as citizens of that kingdom in the here and now. Yes, we live in a fallen and broken world, a world with sickness, pain, and ultimately death. My goodness, I don't need to tell you that! Therefore, we have a choice. We can live into this brokenness or we can somehow live differently. We can live for ourselves, for the moment, putting ourselves first, and squeeze every drop out of this wretched life for our own benefit, or we can live as citizens of heaven — where we put God, others, and the world around us first, and be bringers of light and love to this broken and hurting world.

In Philippi was a Roman colony, and its citizens of Rome were expected to live according to Roman ways in a foreign land. It is the same with us. We are called to live as citizens of heaven here on earth. We literally bring heaven to earth through our lives. If we open ourselves to God, through Jesus Christ, we can allow God to work through us. We can have a bit of heaven literally glowing in us, through the Holy Spirit, and working together with God, we can bring God's light and love to the world around us. I love the image of thinking of us Christians as walking, talking, light bulbs!

The temptation, I suppose, is to keep our heads down and stay focused on the world around us; to get sucked into being citizens of earth, and conform to the earthly ways, of greed, gluttony, selfishness, retaliation, violence, and so on, but we are called to look upwards, towards heaven, to the kingdom and its way of life to which we belong.

Holy God
Help me keep my eyes lifted upwards,
especially when the temptations of this world
seek to draw me downwards.
May I never forget that I am a citizen of heaven —
called to bring heaven to earth.
May the light of your presence so glow within me
that I shine like a light in a dark world.
Now and forever.