Philippians 3:20 (NIV)
But our citizenship is in heaven.
We are all citizens of some country. But where is our true citizenship? We are told there is nothing wrong with being proud of our earthly citizenship as long we first value our citizenship in heaven. But is this true? When the Lord Jesus Christ told us that we can't love God and money, did He also mean that our hearts should be set on God and only God? If that were accurate, would it be a sin to set our hearts on anything, including our citizenship? Idolatry is setting up anything or anyone besides God in our hearts.
This doesn't mean we must renounce our citizenship to acquire our heavenly citizenship. The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:28) but never renounced his earthly citizenship to become a Christian. But the key is that he wasn't proud about being a Roman either. Because Paul knew that our faithful citizenship was in heaven. On this earth and in God's will, we may change and acquire many citizenships during our business transactions. However, we should neither be proud nor ecstatic about these earthly citizenships. Instead, we should set our hearts completely on our citizenship in heaven and not cede that love and joy to any earthly citizenship.
Kommentare