Joy In Christ · Week 9 · Philippians
Citizens of Heaven
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Philippians 3:18–21
Joy In Christ · Week 9 · Philippians
Philippians 3:18–21
The enemies of the cross are a warning and a mirror. For those whose citizenship is in heaven, the end is not destruction — it is transformation.
The Enemies of the Cross and Their End
vv. 18–19
Paul tells the Philippians about those who walk as 1 of the cross — and he says this with 2. He is not detached from what is at stake.
Three marks of the enemy of the cross: their god is their 3 — appetite as the organizing principle of life. Not "what does God want?" but "what do I want?"
They glory in their 4 — what should cause conviction is now flaunted. And their minds are set on 5 things.
"This is not arrived at by a sudden burst of rebellion — but by one small accommodation at a time, until what was once clearly wrong feels not only acceptable but worth flaunting."
Our Citizenship and Our Coming King
vv. 20–21
"But our 6 is in heaven." You are present in this world — but you do not fully belong to it. Your primary identity and allegiance belong elsewhere.
The enemy of the cross has made this world their home. The citizen of heaven is here — but 7 for the one who is coming.
He is coming to 8 our lowly body to be like His glorious body. This is not contingent on you having it all together — it is contingent on Him and Him alone.
"The enemies of the cross organized their lives around the body — and it is passing away. The citizen of heaven holds the body loosely — they are waiting for a glorious one."
Which describes you?
Two kinds of people. Two paths. Two ends. The citizen of heaven lives in this world as one who knows where they are going — and that changes everything about how they live where they are.
Corrie ten Boom emerged from Ravensbrück and spent the rest of her life telling the world: there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. That is what citizenship in heaven does.
"Stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." — Philippians 4:1