Time flies. It’s hard for me to imagine that 2020, which was such a difficult year for our nation and the world, was three years ago. Three years. I’m reminded of this because the American political system still hasn’t recovered from the acrimony and trauma of the last presidential election, even while we gear up for the next. As 2024 approaches, we’re sure to be treated to months of posturing, sniping, and media-based character assassination. Woo hoo.

Sorry. I think I need more sleep.

It is both the right and the privilege of every citizen to vote. I know, I know: it’s easy to be cynical about the system. But even as imperfect as it is, we probably wouldn’t want the alternatives. To live in a representative democracy, in principle, is to have a voice in how we are governed. Other voices may be louder; other voices may carry the day. But we cannot let voices be silenced, nor should we silence ourselves.

We are not, however, merely citizens of the nations in which we live. We are, as followers of Jesus, citizens of the kingdom of God, or in Paul’s words, citizens of heaven. As we’ve seen, he has told the Philippians to pattern their lives after Jesus. He has advised them to look for good role models who live for Jesus as he and his companions do. And he has warned them about those whose lives run counter to the cross, people whose behaviors are driven by the desires of this life as opposed to the life to come. “Their thoughts,” Paul says, “are focused on earthly things” (Phil 3:19, CEB). But in contrast, he writes:

Our citizenship is in heaven. We look forward to a savior that comes from there—the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our humble bodies so that they are like his glorious body, by the power that also makes him able to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:2o-21, CEB)

There it is again: the eschatological way of thinking Paul urges on believers, of seeing the present life in terms of the future God has promised. Many of us, when we hear the word “savior,” think of what God has already done through Jesus’ death on the cross. But Paul is referring here to Jesus’ return as the supreme and rightful king. Whatever he values in this life, whatever he has to endure, he sees in light of that glorious day and the righteous reign that follows.

But the Philippians would likely have heard another layer in Paul’s words. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” he says. That is their first and best identity — as opposed to being citizens of the Roman Empire. In that political context, “Savior” and “Lord” is royal language, reserved for the emperor.

If we’re right in assuming that the Philippians were being pressured by their neighbors to go along with cultic worship of the emperor, then Paul’s words carry extra weight. I know it’s tough, he seems to say. Keep looking at the bigger picture. All persecution is temporary in the larger scheme of things. We must look to the future, when Jesus returns as the true Savior and Lord, returns in power to subject everything to his reign and rule. When that happens, we will no longer suffer the humiliation that comes with living in these earthly bodies; we will have glorious resurrection bodies, bodies like his. So keep standing up for Jesus!

I don’t know what your political leanings are. I don’t know what political issues you’re passionate about, if any.

But Paul, I think, reminds us not to confuse our earthly citizenship with our heavenly one. Yes, by all means, vote your conscience, vote as you believe your devotion demands. But don’t lose sight of the big picture. No law is in itself God’s law, nor does the passage of any law nullify God’s sovereignty. No elected leader is or ever will be Savior or Lord. No earthly government will ever be, in itself, the kingdom of heaven.

I think Paul and Jesus alike would grieve to see Christians anywhere on the political spectrum stoop to verbal or physical violence to achieve their political ends, all in the name of God. We are citizens of heaven first, before we are citizens of anywhere else.

And everything Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven applies.