Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
   - Philippians 3:20

The word "our" at the beginning of this verse is very emphatic. Our citizen-life in the heavens is contrasted with those who "set their mind on earthly things" (verse 19). May the Lord help us to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. May He give us to set our mind "on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1-2).

The saints at Philippi would probably understand Paul's meaning better and more easily than we can: for you will remember that Philippi was a colony of Rome (Acts 16:12). The word "colony" did not have at all the same meaning that we think of today. Rather, it was a miniature or copy of Rome, transplanted into the province of Macedonia. It was populated largely by men who had formerly been Roman soldiers, and they were all Roman citizens, with the special privileges that belonged to such.

Paul uses this unique position of the city of Philippi as a figure of the heavenly citizenship of the Philippian saints. And they would understand his meaning better than any other of the saints to whom he wrote. Not only was their citizenship in Rome, but their laws, their government, their ways, their manner of life, were all Roman, even though they lived in Macedonia.

And so it is with us. Our "citizen-life" is, (not "ought to be") in heaven. We are:

Called from above, and heavenly men by birth
(Who once were but the citizens of earth),
As pilgrims here, we seek a heavenly home,
Our portion in the ages yet to come.      (poem by J. G. Deck)

There is another rather sweet thing in this verse. Our citizen-life, or citizenship, is in the heavens; the word "heavens" is plural, perhaps intimating the vastness of that sphere. But when we read, "from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," the word "which" is in the singular, as though it might suggest the Father's Home, not the vast heavens.

Beloved, are we eagerly awaiting, as Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?

G. Christopher Willis