What do you think heaven will be like? Have you thought about who else is there?

“Citizenship” implies we are not alone—we are citizens together, with shared rights, privileges, allegiances, and obligations. We live in and belong to a community—a shared place.

For the people of Philippi, citizenship also brought with it a much more valuable citizenship in Rome because Philippi was a Roman colony. But it is likely that many Philippian Christians were enslaved and therefore without worldly status of any kind. Therefore, when Paul affirms that “our citizenship is in heaven,” he is doubling down on its being a collective reality, insisting on “our” belonging there. He is asserting that it is good news that all Christians belong with and to one another.

I regularly struggle with this good news of an eternal community because—I confess—there are people I prefer not to spend any time with, much less all time. (I won’t say that some of them are in my church, but I won’t say they aren’t either.) But I am comforted by Paul’s promise that Jesus “will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.” Scripture reminds us that—beginning with our families and congregations and extending across denominational and national boundaries—our lives as Christ followers give us access to incredible grace and life-changing responsibility.

Our citizenship in heaven asserts that we belong in God’s grace together with all those throughout the world who seek it. Above our other allegiances and identities, we claim this holy life together.