“Embroiled in petty priorities.” It was a devasting commentary, and I resonated with it.
I got here throughout these phrases lately from an evangelical statesman saddened to look at some Christians “responding with rising nationalism, generally with virtually horrifying ethnocentrism.” They’re “caught up in a flag-waving nationalism,” he mentioned, “that places the pursuits of my nation or my class or my race or my tribe or my heritage above the calls for of the dominion of God.”
His tone was hopeful, at the same time as he spoke with seriousness about those that had “turn out to be embroiled with petty priorities” — trivia, he mentioned, “that represent an implicit denial of the lordship of Christ.”
Most stunning of all to me was that these phrases had been written greater than thirty years in the past.
‘World Christians’
That evangelical chief is Don Carson, and he was writing within the early 90s. Within the last chapter of The Cross and Christian Ministry (1993), he sounds a name for “world Christians,” that’s, real believers in Jesus who
(1) self-consciously set their allegiance to Christ and his kingdom “above all nationwide, cultural, linguistic, and racial allegiances,”
(2) commit themselves “to the church all over the place, wherever the church is actually manifest, and never solely to its manifestation on dwelling turf,”
(3) see themselves “at the start as residents of the heavenly kingdom and subsequently contemplate all different citizenship a secondary matter,” and
(4) are “single-minded and sacrificial relating to the paramount mandate to evangelize and make disciples” (116–117).
I first learn Carson’s phrases about ten years after their publication, however now, one other 20 years later, they really feel much more prescient. The necessity stays. Seasons of flag-waving come and go, however the New Testomony imaginative and prescient of world Christians endures.
How would possibly we, then, consider ourselves and whether or not we’re such “world Christians”? Has our world’s course and patterns and “cultural moments” dulled the worldwide scope and Nice-Fee pursuits of our religion? How would possibly we freshly test our personal souls — significantly within the hype of an election yr — whether or not we’re world Christians or worldly ones?
The New Testomony’s key texts on heavenly citizenship come from three totally different epistles and authors: Paul to the Philippians, the primary letter of Peter, and the epistle to the Hebrews. To linger over these key texts, let’s ask 4 inquiries to gauge if our sense of heavenly citizenship is alive and properly.
1. How singular is my citizenship?
First comes a query about identification and primacy. Generally we hear the language of “twin citizenship” — that Christians, on this life, are each residents of heaven and residents of our earthly nation. At one stage, after all, that is true. Our varied earthly citizenships are actual and consequential, and so too, if we’re in Christ, and have his Spirit, we’re actually residents of heaven as properly. For that, the go-to banner is Philippians 3:20: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
At one other stage, nevertheless, the “twin citizenship” language will be deceptive. “Twin” would possibly give the impression of equal precedence and weight. However for the relative significance of those citizenships, do that: consider the importance of earthly alongside heavenly, and of momentary alongside everlasting. Philippians 3:20 says nothing about duality of citizenship. It mentions however one citizenship: heaven’s. Paul doesn’t pause to emphasise that Philippian believers are Roman residents as properly, with all of the attendant rights and duties of that citizenship. Quite, the apostle dares to declare to believers in Jesus, residing within the Roman colony of Philippi, “our citizenship is in heaven,” with no {qualifications} about their earthly standing apart from.
“Our life-orienting allegiance is to not an earthly fatherland however to our heavenly Father — and to his Son, at whose identify each knee will bow.”
And if that’s the case with Roman citizenship two millennia in the past, then so too for no matter earthly citizenry we discover ourselves born or obtained into right now. If we’re in Christ, our most basic identification and allegiance is to Jesus and his church, far above and past any earthly nation. Our citizenships are starkly asymmetrical. In gentle of eternity and the preciousness of Christ, we’re Christians first, and a thousand occasions Christians, earlier than we’re People or Canadians or Filipinos. World Christians, Carson writes, see themselves “at the start as residents of the heavenly kingdom and subsequently contemplate all different citizenship a secondary matter.”
In Christ, our life-orienting allegiance is to not an earthly fatherland however to our heavenly Father — and to his Son, at whose identify each knee will bow, starting with ours.
2. What’s my default perspective?
Second comes a query about recurring perspective. We would say, Do you deliberately and commonly reset your thoughts and coronary heart to the values and pursuits of heaven or of earth? And the place does your soul habitually default?
In distinction to the residents of heaven, Philippians 3:19 says this about earthly residents: “Their finish is destruction, their god is their stomach, they usually glory of their disgrace, with minds set on earthly issues.” It’s one factor to deal with “earthly issues.” All of us stay on this world and unavoidably have interaction with the issues of earth. Nevertheless it’s one other factor to set our minds on earthly issues, to default to them, to reset and recalibrate our power and a focus over and over to the world’s requirements and priorities and pursuits, moderately than heaven’s.
In related language, Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your minds on issues which are above, not on issues which are on earth.” The query isn’t whether or not “earthly issues” come into our each day purview, and certainly occupy, in varied levels, a lot of our waking hours. The query is perspective and mindset. Will we have interaction the numerous issues of earth with heaven’s vantage and values? Will we reset and return to Christ’s personal perspective via rhythms of listening to his voice in his phrase, having his ear in prayer, and belonging to his physique within the covenant fellowship of the native church? Or will we default to information and politics, ESPN, the market, the climate, the most recent obscure digital updates on the lives of family and friends?
Nevertheless earthy our lives and callings, in Christ we “search the issues which are above, the place Christ is, seated on the proper hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). With our eyes commonly glancing upward, we truly can be simpler and fruitful down right here, navigating life with heavenly knowledge and correct perspective, moderately than being swallowed up in petty priorities. These involved most about God’s international trigger will do probably the most and greatest at dwelling. Hearts in tune with the Nice Fee will make us far simpler, not much less, in our native context.
3. Do I profess (and follow) a ‘stranger’ standing?
Some are strangers and don’t comprehend it. Others comprehend it however attempt to disguise it. Within the nice religion “corridor of fame” chapter, Hebrews 11, the writer speaks of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, and all of the pre-Christ examples of religion, saying,
These all died in religion, not having obtained the issues promised, however having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they have been strangers and exiles on the earth. For individuals who converse thus make it clear that they’re searching for a homeland. (Hebrews 11:13–14)
Not solely have been they “strangers and exiles,” however they acknowledged it. How so? Not merely in their very own hearts, however they mentioned it out loud (“individuals who converse thus”). They weren’t heaven’s residents in camouflage, residing and looking out identical to their fellow earthly residents. Quite, they have been totally different to the core, knew it, owned it, lived it, and mentioned it.
So ask your self, Am I a stranger right here on earth in any actual senses, and am I prepared and desperate to make that recognized? Do others know that I’m totally different than the rank and file, and the way do they know that? To attract in 1 Peter, do I, as a sojourner and exile right here, abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage warfare in opposition to my soul, and is my conduct on this planet honorable, in order that even those that converse in opposition to me see the real good I do (1 Peter 2:11–12)?
4. The place, actually, is the supply of my hope?
Sadly, some profess Christian religion, but manifestly discover their day-in, day-out animating hope elsewhere. This will get to the guts of Carson’s concern thirty years in the past, and the continued want in our day.
This world is clearly no utopia. All of us lengthy for change, however the place, actually, will we search for that change? What or who will deliver concerning the modifications we ache for? At backside, what’s our coronary heart’s driving hope for the modifications we so desperately want in our personal lives and in our world?
Wholesome people can’t assist however hope — whether or not it’s politics and events, human mind and progress, wealth and riches, work or escape from work, we hope in one thing, or somebody. The query is whether or not your hope, my hope, is a distinctively Christian hope or only a small variation on the world’s unbelieving desires.
For Christians, Hebrews 13:14 says, “Right here we have now no lasting metropolis, however we search town that’s to come back.” That metropolis to come back is the heavenly Jerusalem, town of the residing God (Hebrews 12:22), made not with human fingers however the fingers of God himself (2 Corinthians 5:1), and ready by Christ (John 14:2–3). In the long run, this holy metropolis, the brand new Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven from God, ready as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2).
With this metropolis in view, we’re dissatisfied with any and each mere human nation. We “need a greater nation, that’s, a heavenly one,” figuring out our God “has ready for [us] a metropolis” (Hebrews 11:16). And from that metropolis, the residents of heaven await our Savior (Philippians 3:20). That is our major identification, our default perspective, our glad occupation, and our orienting hope as world Christians not “embroiled in petty priorities.”
