Our Citizenship Is In Heaven

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Legal citizenship in America is a blessing and a responsibility we should cherish. Sadly, many people around the world live in poverty and oppression. The same freedoms we take for granted are the very dreams of grandeur that motivate people to travel great distances and endure significant obstacles to come to America. However, as meaningful as our country is, we must pursue happiness here in America in a way that agrees with God's holy counsel and remembers that our citizenship as believers in Christ is in heaven. We do not want to get entangled in the wayward ways of the world. For this reason, the Apostle Paul declared in Philippians 3.20;

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul's reminder to the church at Philippi will be especially applicable to believers in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation. Revelation 18.4 says;

"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins so that you will not receive any of her plagues.' "

As noted, Babylon geographically and metaphorically is the epicenter of the antichrist's one-world government, commerce, and religion. Right before the return of Christ (Revelation 19), God calls his people out of this evil and corrupt system. See, during the seven-year tribulation period, there will be great preaching of the Gospel, and the harvest will be plentiful. Many of those new believers will become martyrs for their faith in Christ. They will refuse to take the mark of the beast and pay with their lives. Some believers will survive, and the pressure to get caught in the economic system will be significant because basic living necessities will tie to it. Perhaps in these trying times, family and friends will persuade believers to participate in buying and selling within Babylon's economic system. However, God will call His people out of that system to avoid the crossfire. This message to leave Babylon is reminiscent of Isaiah 48.20, which states;

"Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it."

Likewise, let us separate ourselves from the corrupt system of the world we live in by serving Christ and remembering that our home is in heaven.