Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Philippians 3:20

"For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:" — Philippians 3:20 (ASV)

The “our” is emphatic here, stressing the distinction between true believers, whose essential relationships belong to the heavenly sphere, and the sensualists just discussed, who are exclusively concerned with earthly things. The Christian’s “citizenship [GK 4487] is in heaven,” and for each believer earthly things must at best be secondary. The Philippians would find this a most apt metaphor, for in a political sense they knew what it was to be citizens of a far-off city (even though most of them had probably never been to Rome), and they were proud of that status (Acts 16:12, 21; see comment on Php 1:27). On an immeasurably higher plane, believers belong to the “city... whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10) or to the “Jerusalem that is above” (Galatians 4:26), and are themselves “aliens and strangers on earth” (Hebrews 11:13; cf. 1 Peter 2:11). As such, their eyes should be heavenward, anticipating the coming of their Savior, who is not a mere earthly emperor but the Lord Jesus Christ. An eager expectation of his return does much to protect believers from earthly, sensual enticements.