Two Kingdoms
Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
PHILIPPIANS 3:20
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Two Kingdoms
Christians participate in two kinds of life or government. Here on earth, where the world dwells and has its homeland and heaven, we are not citizens. But our citizenship," St. Paul says, "is with Christ in heaven" (Philippians 3:20), that is, in the life to come, for which we wait. We hope to be released, as did those in Babylon, and to come where we will remain citizens and lords forever. However, because we must remain in the misery of our Babylon as long as God wants, we are to do as they were commanded to do: to live here with people, eat and drink, keep house, cultivate fields, govern and conduct ourselves peacefully with them, even pray for them, until the hour comes for us to journey home.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Easter 3 on 1 Peter 2:11-20 (Luther's Works 77:199)
PHILIPPIANS 3:20
+
Two Kingdoms
Christians participate in two kinds of life or government. Here on earth, where the world dwells and has its homeland and heaven, we are not citizens. But our citizenship," St. Paul says, "is with Christ in heaven" (Philippians 3:20), that is, in the life to come, for which we wait. We hope to be released, as did those in Babylon, and to come where we will remain citizens and lords forever. However, because we must remain in the misery of our Babylon as long as God wants, we are to do as they were commanded to do: to live here with people, eat and drink, keep house, cultivate fields, govern and conduct ourselves peacefully with them, even pray for them, until the hour comes for us to journey home.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Easter 3 on 1 Peter 2:11-20 (Luther's Works 77:199)
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