“Embroiled in petty priorities.” It was a devasting commentary, and I resonated with it.
I got here throughout these phrases just lately from an evangelical statesman saddened to observe some Christians “responding with rising nationalism, generally with nearly 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 into 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 ultimate 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 in every single place, wherever the church is really manifest, and never solely to its manifestation on dwelling turf,”
(3) see themselves “in the beginning as residents of the heavenly kingdom and due to this fact think about all different citizenship a secondary matter,” and
(4) are “single-minded and sacrificial in relation 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 twenty 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 verify our personal souls — notably 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. Typically 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 degree, after all, that is true. Our numerous 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 degree, nonetheless, the “twin citizenship” language could be deceptive. “Twin” would possibly give the impression of equal precedence and weight. However for the relative significance of those citizenships, do this: 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. Slightly, the apostle dares to declare to believers in Jesus, dwelling 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 title 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 acquired into in the present day. 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 instances Christians, earlier than we’re Individuals or Canadians or Filipinos. World Christians, Carson writes, see themselves “in the beginning as residents of the heavenly kingdom and due to this fact think about 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 title each knee will bow, starting with ours.
2. What’s my default perspective?
Second comes a query about recurring perspective. We’d 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, and so they glory of their disgrace, with minds set on earthly issues.” It’s one factor to deal with “earthly issues.” All of us reside 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 vitality and a focus again and again to the world’s requirements and priorities and pursuits, relatively than heaven’s.
In related language, Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your minds on issues which might be above, not on issues which might be on earth.” The query isn’t whether or not “earthly issues” come into our day by day purview, and certainly occupy, in numerous levels, a lot of our waking hours. The query is perspective and mindset. Can we have interaction the numerous issues of earth with heaven’s vantage and values? Can we reset and return to Christ’s personal perspective by 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 can we default to information and politics, ESPN, the market, the climate, the most recent obscure digital updates on the lives of family and friends?
Nonetheless earthy our lives and callings, in Christ we “search the issues which might be above, the place Christ is, seated on the proper hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). With our eyes commonly glancing upward, we really shall be simpler and fruitful down right here, navigating life with heavenly knowledge and correct perspective, relatively 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 apply) a ‘stranger’ standing?
Some are strangers and don’t understand it. Others understand it however attempt to conceal 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 acquired 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 communicate thus make it clear that they’re looking 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 communicate thus”). They weren’t heaven’s residents in camouflage, dwelling and searching similar to their fellow earthly residents. Slightly, 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 desirous to make that identified? 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 conflict towards my soul, and is my conduct on the planet honorable, in order that even those that communicate towards 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 continuing want in our day.
This world is clearly no utopia. All of us lengthy for change, however the place, actually, can we search for that change? What or who will carry concerning the adjustments we ache for? At backside, what’s our coronary heart’s driving hope for the adjustments 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 goals.
For Christians, Hebrews 13:14 says, “Right here we’ve got no lasting metropolis, however we search the town that’s to return.” That metropolis to return is “the heavenly Jerusalem,” “the town of the dwelling God” (Hebrews 12:22), made not with human palms however the palms 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,” understanding 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.”
