Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:31

My older brother loved watching the Olympics. Every time they came around he all of a sudden became super vocal about his love for our country. I know my brother loves his country but the Olympics gave me an opportunity to really express that love. He would cheer for the USA no matter what sport we were in. I remember one day walking into the living room and my brother was cheering super loud, as I looked at the tv he was watching curling! It didn’t matter that he barely knew the rules it didn’t matter that he would never play the sport himself. All that mattered was that the person competing shared their citizenship with him. Citizenship is a curious thing. I won’t make any comment about the current discussion involving citizenship in our nation save that it has become more and more of a debated topic in recent years. What’s curious to me is that the Bible gives us pretty strong advice on how we are to identify ourselves. Will you join me as we look at what the Bible says about our citizenship in Heaven? 

But our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Philippians 3:20 

Paul writes in Philippians that we are citizens of Heaven. Do you have a drivers license showing you that? I certainly don’t. For years I was proud of my Hawaii drivers license. I was so sad when I had to give it up for a boring California one and then a Michigan one. We don’t have identification cards to prove our citizenship. Instead we are identified by something very powerful. Jesus tells his disciples in John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That’s a powerful statement. Jesus is saying that your identification card is the action of love. What I love about that is that Jesus basically summed up the attitude of every citizen of Heaven. A place where everyone loves each other. 

Although that might be a bummer to not have a physical card , a positive to this is we don’t have to pay anything to get it. Our citizenship is one that is not paid for by us but it wasn’t free. When I got my licensed changed in California I had to pay a number of different fees. It was beyond annoying. What’s more we have other Identification methods, passports, social security numbers, green cards, visas and other documents can all be used to identify a person and absolutely none of them are free to the person who is in need. What makes the citizenship of Heaven so special is that it too isn’t free. It cost more than anything ever will. Jesus died so that you could be a citizen. John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” this giving wasn’t an easy gift but a gift that would cost the life of Jesus. 

So what do we do about this citizenship? My brother was excited about someone he never knew existed because they shared something with him. Jesus is calling you to that too! Except this time its more than being excited its about caring. 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. 

Acts 2:42-47

The reality of being a citizen of Heaven is that we love each other. That’s what the early church was doing in Acts chapter 2. As a result of their love for each other the citizenship of Heaven skyrocketed. Jesus is calling you to share who He is, through love and through generosity. I don’t know about you but my citizenship means a lot to me. As a citizen of Heaven we are not called to be happy about letting someone else sit outside, we are called to add the number as best we can.