Christian Citizenship

William John Hocking

A passage in Philippians states the special character of Christian citizenship. There we are told that our commonwealth (or citizenship) is in heaven (3:20). In the Authorised Version, we have ‘conversation’ because when that translation was made the word ‘conversation’ meant one’s whole manner of living. On account of this change in its meaning, ‘conversation’ has, in most modern versions, been replaced by ‘citizenship’.

The believer in Christ has entered into a new relationship entirely. He is no longer of this world. He has been redeemed out of the world by the blood of Christ, and he is now the bondservant of Christ. His Lord and Master is in heaven. He is called to share a heavenly inheritance, which is reserved in heaven for him. While he is waiting for Christ to come out of heaven and receive him into His company in the Father’s house on high, he is a pilgrim in this world and a stranger in it. The world regards him as an outsider, which he really is. He is hated by the world, even as Christ was. He is no longer a citizen of the world, but is a fellow-citizen with the saints (Eph. 2:19), and his citizenship is in heaven. Therefore his concern must be concentrated upon heavenly politics, but upon earthly or worldly politics with only the passing interest of a stranger.

Abraham occupied a somewhat similar position in the land of Canaan to that of the Christian in the world. Obedient to the call of God, he left his native country in Mesopotamia and went into the country of the Amorites which God promised to him and his seed. There Abraham lived in faith all his days as a stranger among the inhabitants of that land. He did not own so much as a foot of its soil, and when he needed a piece of ground to be a burying-place for Sarah, he bought a field from Ephron the Hittite according to the custom of the country, paying a heavy price for what was strictly his own. Abraham did not settle down in one of the cities of Canaan and become a magistrate, as Lot did in Sodom. He kept aloof, moving from place to place with his tent and altar, as his livelihood required. He was not attracted by the wealth and conveniences of the Amorite cities, where idolatrous wickedness prevailed, for he lived by faith and ‘looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb. 11:10). Abraham lived in Canaan, but he was not a citizen of Canaan any more than a Christian is in God’s sight a citizen of this world.

A believer in Christ who has learned the great truth that his citizenship is in heaven may want to know how he stands with regard to the laws of the country where he was born and where he resides. The Word of God provides him with ample instructions as to his conduct. He is to recognise with honour and respect those who are responsible for the government of the land in which he lives. And he is to be subject to those who carry on that government, for a very simple and sufficient reason. God Himself is the supreme governor among the nations. Therefore, the believer must submit to the governmental laws and regulations of his country because they proceed from those whom God has providentially permitted to hold this office, and who are, therefore, to be obeyed as His delegates for the maintenance of civil order in that particular part of the world.

If, however, a believer is commanded by the law of his country to do something which is forbidden by the Word of God, he then is bound to resist, and not to obey. His citizenship is in heaven, where the will of God is supreme. Obedience to God has the first and exclusive claim upon him. When the high priest and supreme council of the Jews commanded the apostles not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus, they replied, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29). The high priest was responsible to preserve religious order in Jerusalem, but he had no authority to set aside the command of God Himself. God said, ‘Preach’; Annas said, ‘You are not to preach’. But Peter said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’, and he and his companions went on preaching.

This case of deliberate disobedience by disciples of Christ to a fully recognised governmental authority is an exceptional one. The general rule for a Christian is to obey. He is instructed to do so, and not to resist. Read carefully what Paul says in Romans 13:1–7 and also what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13–14. Paul was writing to believers in Rome, the metropolis of the world-empire of that day. While their permanent interests and chief concerns were to be centred in their heavenly citizenship, each one was to show respect and obedience to the civil authorities established by God. ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers (authorities). For there is no power but of God; the powers that be (exist) are ordained of God’ (Rom. 13:1). This command is very plain: the Christian must be ‘subject’ — that is, must render due obedience to the authorities set over him — and regard them as ‘God’s ministers (or officers)’ (vs. 4–6).

You will see from these and other scriptures that submission by a Christian to the legal requirements of his country is part of his service to God. He is taught by them to fulfil faithfully the demands of taxation, registration and the like as a service to God, to whom those who make and administer the country’s laws are personally responsible. Moreover, the believer must submit ‘to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake’ (1 Pet. 2:13), even when ‘suffering wrongfully’ by his submission (v. 19). He does not oppose unjust legal demands upon him and insist upon his own ‘rights’ from the government of this world, but he endures patiently, committing his cause to God, because his citizenship is in heaven and not here below.

The followers of Christ no longer belong to this world. Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world (or age) (Gal. 1:4). We ‘are not of the world, even as [He is] not of the world’, as the Lord said of us to His Father (John 17:16). Accordingly, the Lord said also to His disciples, making their relationship to the world (also yours and mine) very clear: ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you’ (15:18–19). The Lord is not of this world, because He came down out of heaven, and now He has ascended up into heaven (3:13). We belong to Him, and therefore our citizenship is in heaven.

The believer who understands the position that God has given him apart from this world will pass through it as a pilgrim and a stranger, desiring ‘a better country, that is, an heavenly’ (Heb. 11:16). He renders his allegiance to the king or sovereign lord of his native land; he acknowledges the authority of all ministers of state and of those responsible to see that the country’s laws and regulations are observed; he pays cheerfully and punctually all legal rates and taxes; he renders ‘to all (state officials) their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour’ (Rom. 13:7). In short, his constant aim is to ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world’ (Titus 2:12), because his citizenship is in heaven.

In what way, then, must a Christian show that his citizenship is in heaven? By accepting but not interfering with the management of the state affairs of his native country. He obeys the government that exists, whatever its form. He would not seek to pull down one form in order to set up another. He is not an earthly politician, and is not responsible to struggle by voice or pen or vote for a monarchy against a democracy, or vice versa. He does not resist what is wrong, which is the way of the world; as a heavenly citizen, he remembers the Lord’s words to Pilate, the unjust judge, ‘My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews’ (John 18:36). The Lord did not exercise His own personal rights, nor take any part in the political agitation of the Jews against their Roman conquerors and oppressors. And we are His disciples. Let us then not meddle with the politics of the day, nor cast our votes for this party or that, nor appeal to the tribunals of this world for justice in our cause. Like our Lord, let us rather commit ourselves ‘to him that judgeth righteously’ (1 Pet. 2:23). As we sometimes sing:

Called from above, and heavenly men by birth,
(Who once were but the citizens of earth),
As pilgrims here, we seek a heavenly home, 
Our portion in the ages yet to come.[1]

W J Hocking[2]

[1] J G Deck, Spiritual Songs hymn 212.

[2] From The Bible Monthly (1945) vol. 23 p. 56.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2022