CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

As Christians, the Bible says we are now citizens of heaven. Our true home is with God in heaven—yet all too often we act as if this world is where we really belong.

A guy visited his friend, a British military officer stationed in an African jungle. One day when the friend entered the officer’s hut, he was surprised to see him dressed in a suit and tie (despite the heat) and seated at a table laid with stuff from home: silverware and fine china plates and cups. The guy asked what was going on. The officer explained, “Once a week I dress like the people back home and lay the table like they do to remind myself of who I am—a British citizen. I want to remember the lifestyle of my real home and live by the codes of British life, no matter how those around me live.”

Christians should have a similar outlook. Our true citizenship is in heaven, so we must be careful not to just live as the people around us do—driven by a ‘me first’ culture rather than living according to God’s ways (SEE ROMANS 12:2). We are not to take on this world’s ways or adopt its values. We need to live in such a way that others will see that we are different. We are strangers in this world

and citizens of heaven.