Citizenship

And be not conformed to this world… Romans 12:2

We are not citizens of this world. We have become God’s people, with citizenship in a new place. And yet, our bodies, our fleshly beings, are still present in the world. Our bodies are full of worldly needs, but our spirit and our inner being longs for God. No wonder we have conflict in the world. Our own nature wars against itself. Our mind tells us that we must live our lives by the rules of this world if we are to survive and to thrive. But God tells us that we do not belong here.

When we try to fit in to this world, we find the fit is very uncomfortable. The discomfort comes because when we try to conform to the world, we deny our own true nature; we deny that our citizenship is with God. Comfort comes when we act like what we are – God’s people. This doesn’t mean that we ignore the world or pretend that we have no interaction with it. We’re here – we’re just visiting.

Acting like one of God’s citizens is a lifelong learning process. It takes us years to learn about being a citizen of America, why should we expect to be instant citizens for God? To become a knowledgeable citizen of this country we study its history, laws and customs so we can act with understanding; in other words, we read the manual, and then put it into practice. Becoming God’s citizen is no different; read the manual, God’s written Word, and then put it into practice.