Life Patterns: Living as Citizens of Heaven

 Have you ever felt like you don’t quite belong in the world around you? As disciples of Jesus, that sense of disconnect isn’t a mistake—it’s a reminder of where our true citizenship lies.

In this post at Paul’s Ponderings, I reflect on Philippians 1:27–30 and share three key life patterns that help us live as citizens of heaven: loyalty, courage, and awareness. These aren’t lofty ideals—they’re practical ways to show the world who we really are and what kingdom we represent.

I invite you to read, reflect, and respond—and to ask God for the strength to live faithfully, no matter what comes your way.

Read the full post here: Life Patterns: Living as Citizens of Heaven

Citizens of God's Kingdom

{Ephesians 2:19-22; NLT} 

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. 

 

There are two kingdoms. 

There is the kingdom of this world and there is the kingdom of God. 

 The reality of life, apart from Jesus, is that we are excluded from God’s kingdom. This means we are strangers and foreigners in the very kingdom that God created us to call home. 

Things can be different! 

Our citizenship can be changed!

 Not only can we become citizens of God’s kingdom, but we can even be adopted into God’s family! 

Before, while we were in our sin, we were outsiders, we didn’t belong to God’s Kingdom, but now we do. We were citizens of the world, and foreigners in the Kingdom of God, but now our citizenship has changed. 

The world is no longer our home, we are pilgrims in this land, because our citizenship is now in Heaven.

 I want to point out two implications that come with being citizens of God’s Ki ngdom. 

1. We are not alone. I am not the only citizen of the Kingdom, and though it might feel like I am all alone at times, that is just a feeling and not reality. In this Kingdom reside all the faithful who lived under the Old Covenant as well as all of the faithful who follow Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews writes of a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). It encourages me to think about all the people who have lived faithful lives, because it reminds me that I am not the only one to experience the struggles of faith. 
2. There is a standard for living. God expects His people to live in a certain way. One of the expectations God has for His people is that we will be servants. We need to help those people who are in need and in the process bring God’s love and hope into their lives. A second expectation is that we live moral lives. The moral standard that we live by needs to be better than the standard the rest of the world by. People need to recognize that there is a difference in the way we live and the they live. 

What a word of hope we find in this passage. 

We are part of God’s Kingdom! Being citizens of God’s kingdom is going provide us with some challenges. It will be a challenge simply because our purpose of life has changed. The fact that we are citizens of God’s kingdom and members of His household needs to shape the way we live.

Why? 

It needs to shape our lives because we no longer live for ourselves. Now we are representatives, ambassadors, of God’s Kingdom, and is essential that we to play the part.

Questions to consider: 

• What was your life like before Jesus? 
• Do you gain any hope from knowing you are part of God’s kingdom? 
• How can you be a good representative of God’s kingdom?

Trust Jesus to Lead

One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is the story of the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30).

I like the story because the Rich Young Ruler is a person in the Bible who American Christians can relate to.

While we may not consider ourselves rich, compared to rest of the world we are. In fact, the greatest stumbling block for Americans, just as it was for the Rich Young Man, is materialism (measuring the worth and purpose of our lives by the things we have or desire to have).

The Rich Young Man comes to Jesus with the question: "How can I have eternal life?"

Ultimately what the Young Man asked Jesus is how he can be part of God's eternal kingdom.

Jesus responded, "You need to keep the commandments."

The key, according to Jesus, is to remain in God's will. God revealed His will to Israel through the Law. For the Rich Young Man to remain in God's will required that he keep the commandments.

Young Man replied to Jesus, "I have kept the commandments."

We should not hear this as being arrogant, but rather a declaration that he was following what the Law required. He obeyed the commandments, and when he broke one he made sure the appropriate sacrifice was offered. In his mind he could truthfully say, "I have kept the commandments."

Notice Jesus did not challenge him on this point. Rather, he gave the Young man one more thing to do: sell his possessions and give the money to the poor.

Remember Jesus hung all the commandments on two commands: love God and love your neighbor.

What the Young Man revealed by holding on to his wealth is that he really did not keep the commandments. He participated in a religion, but true love eluded him.

The Young Man was torn between two desires. He desired the lifestyle that his money gave him, but he also desired to be part of God's Kingdom.

The Young Man chose the immediate desire of an easy life rather than the long term desire of following Jesus.

The result was that the Young Man missed out on being part of God's Kingdom. He came with the desire to be part of the eternal Kingdom of God. He went away sad because he knew his desire would not be satisfied.

I wonder if the Young Man was still alive in 70 AD.

Did he witness the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans?

Did he experience hunger that no amount of money could fill?

Was he one of the rich people who had their bellies slit open as they tried to sneak out of Jerusalem with their riches in their stomach?

Did he see the futility of trusting in his wealth and wonder how life would have been different if he had followed Jesus?

It doesn't really matter if he was alive then or not, because his choice led him down the path of the temporary which always leads to an ever increasing desire of the things of this world. The sadness he experienced when he left Jesus was the same sadness that had him seeking Jesus. His life was missing something, but he wasn't willing to to do what was necessary to fulfill the craving of his soul.

What about you?

Is there something in your life that you are hanging on to even though you know it is an obstacle to the life God has for you?

Is there something in your life that you have learned to rely for comfort and fulfillment but pushes Jesus out?

Until we are willing to trust Jesus more than we trust ourselves we will continue to be frustrated with the direction of our lives.

Following Jesus requires us to live with courage.

The first courageous step that we must take is to give up those things we have trusted to bring us happiness, pleasure, and meaning. It is a scary thing to give up what we comfortable with in order to venture into the unknown. We will never know the life God has for us until we do exactly what he tells us to do.

We must trust Jesus to lead the way to life.

Rend Collective - Build Your Kingdom Here OFFICIAL

Jesus asked us to pray: "Your kingdom come..."

May we continue to pray for the coming of God's Kingdom and may we yield our lives to God's will. 

This is one of my favorite Rend Collective songs.

 

If God Ran Things

Daily Thought: The Kingdom of God Must Take Root

The kingdom which Jesus came to bring to earth as in heaven must take root in, and be implemented through, the cleansed and softened hearts of his followers.

N. T. Wright, After You Believe, Harper One (2010), p. 123

Prayer: Nothing to Offer

Matthew 5:3

Father in Heaven,

What can I offer that is worthy of Your love for me? You know that I struggle with sin as I live in this fallen and sin-filled world. There is nothing I can bring to You that is not tainted by sin.  I realize that I am totally dependent on Your grace and love for true and abundant life.  That is why I humbly offer my life and my love to You.  For You alone can rescue me from the kingdom and darkness and make me a part of Your glorious kingdom.  That is where I want to be!

Daily Thought: What is the World?

“The world” does not mean nature around us. God nowhere tells us that the material world is an enemy to be overcome. On the contrary, we read: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork.”

It means “human life and society as far as alienated from God, through being centered on material aims and objects, and thus opposed to God’s Spirit and kingdom.” Christ said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you . . . the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Love of the world means the forgetfulness of the eternal future by reason of love for passing things.

Moody, Dwight Lyman (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 259-265). Kindle Edition.

Who is Your King?

{Judges 17:6; ESV}

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 

In the book of Judges we are able to read the story of the nation of Israel and the settling of the Promised Land. The recurring problem this young nation dealt with was the unwillingness to surrender to God’s rule. As long as God provided them with a leader: Moses, Joshua, and the various Judges the people seemed to do what was right, but once these leaders were gone the people seemed to always follow the religious practices of the kingdoms around them.

This unwillingness on Israel’s part to accept God’s rule led to the consequence of invasions by other kings. There was no Israelite king who ruled Israel, but they were kings ruling Israel. These kings were cruel and they devastated the nation and kept the Israelites in bondage. Because they would not accept God’s invitation to be King, God allowed the invasions to occur.

The Old Testament often gives us a picture of what historically happened as a metaphor of what happens to us spiritually. Just as Israel needed to surrender to God lordship, we too need to surrender to God's rule.

We may think we don’t need a king in our lives, we may think that we are free to do whatever we please, and we may think that we are not bound by the chains of a tyrant. But that would be an illusion of the Evil One. The reality is that you are chained and enslaved. The habits you cannot break are not the result of your weakness, but are slave chains given to us by a cruel master. The lust, selfishness, and greed of your heart are the chains in which you have been bound. “I am free,” you yell, and then you fall back into whatever addictions you have that bring you so much comfort.

The reason you get drunk, high, and pursue sexual pleasure is not because you are free to do so, but because you have been enslaved by the promise that these are the things which will bring you happiness. Even though you have discovered that they are source of pain, and not happiness, you are powerless to break free. You are the slave of a cruel tyrant and he is out to make your life hell.

My King on the other hand did not come to enslave but to free. He does not steal life, but gives a life that is beyond our imagination. He invites everyone to accept His Kingship, and He promises to help us throw off the chains that have us weighed down. He promises to give us hope and purpose. He offers a relationship that is worth more than the life which we live.

While Jesus is offering all people the opportunity to accept His Kingship there will come a day when this invitation will cease. Jesus is preparing to return and on that day no one will be able to stand against Him. Everyone will bow before Him, either in absolute terror or in absolute love, and worship the King of kings. Now is the time for you to defect from the kingdom of this world and become part of the Kingdom of Heaven. The day is coming soon when there will only be one King left standing, and on that day I want to be on His side.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35:3-4; ESV).

I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching (2 Timothy 4:1-2; NLT).

Our True Citizenship

{Ephesians 2:19-22, ESV}

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 

The only citizenship that truly matters is our citizenship in God's Kingdom.  In this passage the apostle Paul is addressing Gentile Christians, and he reminds them that before Jesus they were on the outside of the God's Kingdom.  They were no better than strangers and aliens in a foreign land, for they did not possess the citizenship papers of the Kingdom, the citizenship papers of faith in the One True God.

That has now all changed!  They no longer had to live as foreigners in regards to God's Kingdom, because now they belonged.  What wonderful news that is!  Regardless of the land of their birth or their ancestry they could find a place, not only in God's Kingdom, but in His very household.  They could be part of the precious and loved people of the World's One True God!

One of things we like to say is, "God bless America!" and we come to believe that because we are citizens of the United States we have a privileged status in the world.  What we forget is that none of that matters.  We can be the most productive and patriotic citizens of this country and it wouldn't matter, because we would be aliens in God's Kingdom without Jesus.  Being citizens of the United States means nothing if we are not first and foremost citizens of God's Kingdom.

When we are citizens of God's Kingdom we realize that the way God blesses America is through blessing His people (the Church), that we can go out and be a blessing to those around us.  We realize that the foundation of our lives is not some political philosophy, be it liberal or conservative, but Jesus Christ.  So what is needed for a God Blessed America is not converting people to our political persuasion so that "Christian" laws can be made, but to convert people to the way of Jesus so that true Christians are created.

The Church will do far more good for the United States when we stop trying to create a Christian nation through politics and begin to bless those around us as we live as true citizens of God's Kingdom.  For that to happen we will have to accept the fact that our American citizenship is worth nothing, and our true citizenship in God's Kingdom is worth everything.

Daily Thought: No Shortcuts, No Alternate Routes

"The truth is, unless we come humbled and barren, with empty hands and open hearts, then access to the kingdom is denied.  There are no shortcuts, no alternate routes.  All must pass the way of the cross." ~ Mark Moore, Encounters With Christ, p. 26

Daily Thought: Establishing the Kingdom

"For him [Jesus] the kingdom which he inaugurated could  be firmly established only through his death and resurrection.  Or, to put it the other way around the main purpose of his death and resurrection was to establish the kingdom he had already begun to inaugurate." ~ N. T. Wright, After Your Believe, p. 111

Daily Thought: Kingdom-of-God Activity

"To promote law, order, and justice is good, and we certainly should do all we can to support this.  But to love enemies, forgive transgressors, bless persecutors, server sinners, accept social rejects, abolish racist walls, share resources with the poor, bear the burden of neighbors, suffer with the oppressed—all the while making no claims to promote oneself—this is beautiful; this is Christlike.  Only this, therefore, is distinct kingdom-of-God activity." ~ Gregory Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation, p. 103

Daily Thought: New Orders

"The Kingdom of God is advancing into the kingdom of darkness, a campaign to ransom people and the earth God intended us to rule. For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost. All that was lost. If Christianity seems to you to be having rather less than a remarkable impact on the earth, it is because too many Christians have this idea that we are in a waiting game, that we are basically killing time until Jesus comes back and we all get to go to heaven. We are sitting around like people waiting to catch a flight. That is not what Jesus told us to do; he didn’t say, 'Now hold tight in those pews and twiddle your holy thumbs, I’ll be back soon as I can.' He said, 'As the Father has sent me, I send you' (John 20:21). Let that sink in for a moment. New orders have been given." ~ John and Stasi Eldredge, Love and War, Kindle Edition

Daily Thought: Forsaking God's Kingdom

"In the interest of effectively accomplishing what it thought was an immediate and discernable good thing, the church often forsook its kingdom-of-God call.  As a result, it frequently justified doing tremendously evil things.  The moment worldly effectiveness replaces faithfulness as the motive for an individual's or institution's behavior, they are no longer acting on behalf of the kingdom of God but are participating in the  kingdom of the world.  The so-called good end will always be used to justify  the evil means for those thinking with a kingdom-of-the-world mindset, and in doing this, the church succumbed to the very temptation Jesus resisted." ~ Gregory Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation, p. 80

Citizens of God's Kingdom

{Ephesians 2:19-22; ESV}

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 2:11-18, reminds his readers of their previous reality. They were excluded from God’s Kingdom, and therefore they had no hope. Yet, something happened to change their status. That something was Christ Jesus who broke down the wall (verse 14). Through Jesus they were given hope and they were reconciled to God.

Stop for a moment and remember what your former life looked like. Even those of us who have grown up in a Christian family can remember the time when we realized that we were outside of God’s Kingdom. I vividly remember the night when I realized that I couldn’t rely on the faith of my family and that I had to have my own faith. That was a scary night, but fortunately I knew the One I had to turn to in order to find forgiveness and hope.

That is what served as an introduction to what the apostle Paul wrote in verses 19-22 of Ephesians 2. What Paul wants us to understand is that we are part of a great sacred community: The Kingdom of God.

Before, while we were in our sin, we were outsiders, we didn’t belong to God’s Kingdom, but now we do. We were citizens of the world, and foreigners in the Kingdom of God, but now our citizenship has changed. The world is no longer our home, we are pilgrims in this land, because our citizenship is now in Heaven.

I want to point out two implications that come with being citizens of God’s Kingdom. The first implication is that we are not alone.  I am not the only citizen of the Kingdom, and though it might feel like I am all alone at times, that is just a feeling and not reality. In this Kingdom reside all the faithful who lived under the Old Covenant as well as all of the faithful who follow Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews writes of a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). It encourages me to think about all the people who have lived faithful lives, because it reminds me that I am not the only one to experience the struggles of faith.

The second implication I would like to point out is that there are certain expectations for a citizen of God’s Kingdom. One of the things that have horrified us, as U.S. citizens, has been the accusation of brutal and inhumane conduct by our military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have an expectations that our military would conduct themselves in a better manner.

There are expectations for living the God has placed on the citizens of His Kingdom. One of those expectations is that we are to be servants. We need to help those people who are in need and in the process bring God's love and hope into their lives. A second expectation is that we live moral lives. The moral standard that we live by needs to be better than the rest of the world. People need to recognize that there is a difference in the way we live and the way the world lives.

What a word of hope we find in this passage. We are part of God’s Kingdom! You and I need to allow this reality to shape the way we live. Why? We are representatives, ambassadors, of God’s Kingdom, and is essential that we to play the part.

The Gospel's Good News

Today I read an essay by N. T. Wright entitled Paul's Gospel and Caesar's Empire which lays out a fresh perspective on what Paul meant by the word gospel.  I found it fascinating because it helps clarify some of my thinking as of late. It seems to me that we have been limiting the idea of Gospel to primarily mean that we have been saved from our sins.  The bad news is that we are sinners and destined for hell, and the good news is that Jesus died for our sins so we can go to heaven.

Certainly there is an aspect of the Gospel that means just that, but I would suggest that the Good News associated with Jesus means much more than this.

It is important to stress, as Paul would do himself were he not so muzzled by his interpreters, that when he referred to "the gospel" he was not talking about a scheme of soteriology. Nor was he offering people a new way of being what we would call "religious". Despite the way Protestantism has used the phrase (making it denote, as it never does in Paul, the doctrine of justification by faith), for Paul "the gospel" is the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth is Israel's Messiah and the world's Lord. It is, in other words, the thoroughly Jewish, and indeed Isaianic, message which challenges the royal and imperial messages in Paul's world.

The world's rightful King has come into this world through the nation of Israel.  He has come to rescue us from evil and set the world to rights.  That is Good News! Yes, the fact that we are saved from our sins is tied up in this, but it is not the entirety of what the Gospel is about.  In other words the King has come and now is the time to pledge your loyalty to Him.

Paul's Gospel and Caesar's Empire | N. T. Wright

Too Distracted to Mourn

{Matthew 5:4; ESV}

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

I think many Americans live in a fantasy world. Because we have enjoyed such a high standard of living in the United States we have been able to be free from many of the world’s troubles. We don’t know what it is like to live in extreme poverty and to hungry most of the time.

Not only are we insulated from many of the harsh realities that many other people deal with on a constant basis, many of us are consumed with another life. Not the true eternal life that we receive from Jesus, but the fantasy life of sports, TV shows, video games, and even politics. These things blind us from the reality of the world around us and therefore we are clueless about what life in a fallen sinful world is really like.

I am currently doing a sermon series through the Sermon on the Mount. Last week I preached part 1 on the beatitudes, a sermon I entitled “Proper Citizens” as we looked at the 8 virtues that need to be present in the life of a citizen of God’s Kingdom.

Right now I am in the process of preparing for part 2, a sermon I have entitled “Kingdom Blessings” as we will look at the eight blessings promised to the citizens of Heaven. As I was doing my study today I read this passage from Leon Morris’ commentary on Matthew:

Perhaps we should bear in mind that typically the worldly take a lighthearted attitude to the serious issues of life, a fact that is very evident in our pleasure-loving generation. In there seeking after self-gratification and pleasure they do not grieve over sin or evil. Because they do not grieve over what is wrong in themselves, they do not repent; and because they do not grieve over the wrong they share with others in the communities in which they live, they take few steps to set things right. (The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Matthew; p. 97)

It is so easy to allow these pleasures to consume our lives and to distract us from the reality of life, and in the end we are not people who are mourning over the sin in our lives, the sin in our communities, or the evil that is rampant in the world. We push from our minds the images of starving children, the disfigured bodies of those people in war zones, or the faces of drug addicts right around the corner. As a result we are not crying out to God in repentance for mercy, healing, and help. We are doing nothing except sitting on the couch catching the next episode of American Idol and talking about who is going to win The Super Bowl.

If we are going to be people who are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven then we need to be people who mourn, who cry over the sin and evil this world. This isn’t about being sad and depressed all the time, rather it is about living a life of repentance and joining God in bringing His Kingdom rule into this world. It is about taking time to pray about the issues that are on your heart, it is about being generous with the blessings God has given to you, and it is about becoming active in this world.

We live in a world that is messed up and where a lot of people are hurting. We may not be able to change the world, but we can do something that will bring a little light and love into the life of another person. May we be people who mourn over the broken nature of this world and who are confident that one day God will make everything right.

A Prayer: Seek God's Kingdom

Matthew 6:33

Lord God
I pause right now to return my focus to You.  Life has a way of stealing my focus as I am distracted by responsiblities, entertainments, and emergencies.  Rather than seeking Your Kingdom and Your righteousness I seek after my own concerns.  Forgive me for not trusting You.

The reality is that it is impossible for me to seek after Your Kingdom.  I have not the dedication or the faith to follow after Jesus in love and obedience.  That is why I plead to You today to add to my belief faith and to my good intentions commitment and to my desire love.  I need Your help if I am to seek Your Kingdom and righteousness, I cannot do it on my own!  Guide me through this life and bring me into Your Kingdom.  That is my heart's desire.

Thank Your Father for Your love and forgiveness.  It is in Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We have been Rescued

We live in a world gone wrong.  While the news confirms this reality we also feel it intensely in our guts: things are not what they should be.  Christianity doesn't candy coat this reality, but it explains the reason why, and that reason is because this world is under the influence of Satan.  We are trapped in a great cosmic war.

With that in mind consider what N. T. Wright wrote;

Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel--the life of the whole world in fact--not as a teacher of timeless truths, nor as a great moral example, but as the one through whose life, death, and resurrection God's rescue operation was put into effect, and the cosmos turned its its great corner at last, and the cosmos turned its great corner at last.  All worldviews are challenged to the core by this claim (Simply Christian, p. 140).

This world, and our very lives, are not what they should be, but in Christ Jesus we have the promise of better things to come.  Why do we have the promise of better days?  The apostle Paul wrote; For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins (Colossians 1:13-14; NLT).  We have been rescued, now what are we going to do?