Citizens of Heaven

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” John 15:18-19

We are no longer part of this world. We are here as ambassadors on earth. Our Lord chose us to come out of the world. We are citizens of heaven and therefore we must live as citizens of heaven, conducting our selves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Over and over again we see in the Word of God where we are given instructions on how to live as children of light and citizens of heaven. We are instructed to throw off our old sin nature and to leave our former way of life when we were living for the world. (Philippians 3:17-20, 1:27)

“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.” Ephesians 4:17-22

Since we have been raised to new life with Christ, we are to set our sights on the realities of heaven. We are to seek the kingdom of God and live rightly. We can not allow ourselves to be conformed to the world’s way of doing things and it’s views on life. We are to have the mind of Christ in everything we say and do. We must not copy of the behavior and the customs of this world, but we must allow the Word of God to transform our minds so that it lines up with the Word of God and not the word of men. (Colossians 3:1, Kingdom 6:33, Romans 12:2)

Too many ‘believers’ are allowing themselves to be deceived by the evil one and are going around saying foolish things against the Truth and supporting immoral behavior then claiming to be ‘Christians’. They see no problem with homosexuality, abortion, fornication, sexual promiscuity, participating in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, lying to cover their sin, quarreling, and jealousy. They have become attached to the things and customs of this world and allowed their contact with the world to corrupt their minds and ruin their testimony for Christ. They love the world and their selfish desires more than the Word of God. Instead of gathering souls with Christ they are scattering them by misrepresenting the church. (Matthew 12:30)

Brothers and sisters we have to be careful to not love this world. Remember what John said in 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

Our Lord has called us to come out of the world. To be different to stand up as citizens of heaven and speak the truth of God’s Word to the rest of the world even though others will say that we are zealots or radicals and peculiar people. The world will not receive us but that is ok because this is not our world anyways. We are only on a journey, a mission from God saved by Christ to share the Good News of salvation through Christ Jesus. Our hearts desire should be that none would perish but that all would be saved. God can use each us in these ends days to share the Gospel message with a perishing world if we will accept the call to come out of the world first and truly live for Christ. Our lives will be proof to them that we belong to Christ and that our treasures are in heaven.