Becoming citizens of God’s Kingdom just may put us at odds with the kingdoms and cultures of this world that call for our allegiance.
And as we talked about in our last series, it may cause us to abandon the hopes of a Christian nation - a nation where Christians force others to behave as we see fit. Instead, we choose to live as faithful witness of the Jesus nation here in foreign territory. For us to act justly in an unjust world. To love mercy in a culture of hostility and division. And to not seek power, but to live humbly, simply co-operating our lives interactively with God and others.
The letter to the Philippian Church has a lot to say about what it looks like to live this way. What it looks like to live as citizens of Heaven in the empires of our world. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippian Church from a prison cell where he was awaiting trial as a political prisoner: someone who “defies Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” (Acts 17:7)
And it seems as if the Philippian Church is facing the same kind of opposition from their neighbors (Philippians 1:30). The colony of Philippi was founded by Augustus Caesar shortly after defeating the forces of Brutus and Cassius (Julius Caesars’ assassins) in a short lived civil war.
The colony was founded as a Roman military colony, and all Philippians were given Roman citizenship. As scholar Gordon D. Fee states, Augustus intentionally “populated the town… with discharged veterans from the war. This… ensured allegiance to the empire (through its emperor).” Philippi was a colony that was heavily steeped in patriotic nationalism for Rome. Fee continues:
“Philippi owed its existence as a Roman colony to the special grace of the first Roman emperor, thus ensuring that the city would always have special devotion for the emperor. By the time of (the Philippian) letter, the primary titles for the emperor were Kyrios and Soter (“Lord and Savior”) Not only so, but the cult of the emperor, honoring the emperor in a way approaching deification, had found its most fertile soil in the eastern provinces. In a city like Philippi this would have meant that every public event (the assembly, public performances in the theater, etc…) and much within its boundaries took place in the context of giving honor to the emperor, with the acknowledgement that (in this case) Nero was “lord and savior.” Which is precisely the place where believers in Christ could no longer join in as citizens of Rome in Philippi. Their allegiance was to another Kyrios, Jesus Christ, before whom every knee would someday bow and every tongue confess, including the citizens of Phlippi who were causing their suffering as well as the emperor himself. The Philippian believers in Christ were thus citizens of a greater dominion, and their allegiance was to another Soter, whose coming from heaven they awaited with eager expectation.”
The Philippian church is experiencing opposition and pressure from their Philippian neighbors to live as citizens of Rome. But there also seems to be small cracks in the unity of the Philippian Church that Paul wants to address. It’s not clear what this opposition is, but there at least seems to be some desire within that Church (or neighboring churches) to return to some form of Judaism. Perhaps this is because Judaism was a recognized religion in the Roman empire, where the newly formed Christianity was not.
Either way, Paul seems to have a lot on his mind when he writes to the Philippian Church about how to maintain unity and love, as well as how to preserve faithfulness to King Jesus, and to faithfully live as citizens of heaven rather than the Roman Empire that is opposing them. And Paul does this by instructing them on how to more closely follow the example of Jesus. Rather than being formed by the culture around them or the opposition facing them, instead to be formed by the Spirit of God and the bond of unity into the likeness of King Jesus.
Over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to look closely at this letter to see what it has to say about our lives as citizens of the Jesus nation in the kingdom of America. What does it look like for us to maintain unity with one another in a divided and hostile culture? What does it look like for us to humbly love and serve one another in a culture that teaches me to prioritize myself? What does it look like to live with undivided allegiance to King Jesus?
And how will doing this serve as a subversive, counter-cultural witness to King Jesus and His Kingdom in 21st Century America?
