Where is your home? I know what you are thinking. “Pastor, you have a database. If you need to look up my address, feel free to do so.” Let me clarify. I am not asking for your house number, but for your home.
In Paul’s audience were some who had forgotten their address. As Paul urged believers to “live up to what we have already attained,” he was concerned that they might lose ground and go backward in their faith. Paul was in jail again for preaching, so they couldn’t exactly meet up with him and ask him what to do next. So Paul told them to follow his example and to watch those who lived as he lived.
As in the first century, some in our day have given up on the gospel. They live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Paul offers four telling identifiers of this group: First, their destiny is destruction – it will not end well for those who oppose the crucified and risen King of the universe. Second, their god is their stomach. They were driven by their own sinful desires more than by God’s direction through the Holy Spirit. Third, their glory is in their shame. They were proud of their own sin and made it a badge of honor. God was to them a senile benevolence who did not care about their sin. Finally, when they thought, they always thought about the present world and circumstances, never about eternity.
Paul offers us a better way. Our ultimate citizenship is in heaven. For whom are we waiting eagerly? The Lord Jesus Christ. He possesses power to subdue all things. Better still, Jesus alone has the power to change our mortal bodies to become like his glorious body. My friend Bill Osborne used to say, “This world is not our home. We are just passing through.” This, and nothing less is our hope.
