Heaven's Colonists and Earth's Gluttons Text: Philippians 3:17-21
Introduction: Two Processions
Every man is in a procession, walking somewhere. There are only two parades in this world, and they are moving in opposite directions with entirely different destinations. One is a funeral march, though it is often disguised as a party. It is loud, it is gaudy, it glories in its shame, and it ends in destruction. The other is a march of triumph, though it often looks like a humble trek of pilgrims. It is marked by discipline, by a clear-eyed gaze toward a distant country, and it ends with the complete transformation of all things.
The apostle Paul, writing from a Roman prison, places these two processions before the Philippians. He does not present them as two equally valid lifestyle choices. He is not a modern guidance counselor. He presents them as a matter of eternal life and eternal death. One way is the way of Christ; the other is the way of the enemies of the cross of Christ. And the striking thing, the thing that should cause us to sit up straight, is that these enemies are not pagan outsiders throwing rocks at the church. They are inside the church. Paul speaks of them with tears. These are not strangers; these are professing Christians who have taken a disastrously wrong turn. They have mistaken the mess hall for the throne room.
In our passage today, Paul lays out the stark contrast. He calls us to imitate the faithful, to identify the fraudulent, and to inhabit our true citizenship. We are either walking according to the heavenly pattern or according to the earthly appetite. There is no middle ground, no third parade. You are in one or the other. The great task of the Christian life is to make sure you have on the right uniform and are marching under the right banner.
The Text
"Brothers, join in following my example, and look for those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even crying, as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their stomach and glory is in their shame, who set their thoughts on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself."
(Philippians 3:17-21 LSB)
Follow the Leader (v. 17)
We begin with Paul's straightforward command to imitate.
"Brothers, join in following my example, and look for those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." (Philippians 3:17)
This is not arrogance. In our egalitarian, anti-authority age, this sounds jarring. We think of ourselves as brave, independent thinkers, charting our own course. But this is a delusion. Everybody imitates somebody. The only question is who. Our generation pretends to value a kind of untutored originality, but what this really produces is chaos. And then, because we are made to imitate, we just end up imitating the chaos.
The Christian faith is not learned from a textbook in a vacuum. It is learned in community, by imitation. Paul says elsewhere, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). The Christian life is passed down from one faithful life to another. This is why we are commanded to observe those who walk according to the pattern. We are to look for the right kind of footprints in the mud and place our own feet in them. We are to imitate character, not personality. We are not called to adopt Paul's haircut or his mannerisms, but rather his dogged faithfulness, his singular focus on Christ, his cross-bearing life.
This means that older, mature believers have a solemn responsibility to live lives worthy of imitation. And it means that younger believers have a responsibility to find such examples and follow them. This is discipleship. It is how the pattern of godliness is woven into the fabric of the church from one generation to the next. You cannot learn to be a Christian by yourself. You must watch how it is done.
Enemies of the Cross (v. 18-19)
Paul now turns, with tears, to the other procession. He identifies the counterfeit Christians.
"For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even crying, as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their stomach and glory is in their shame, who set their thoughts on earthly things." (Philippians 3:18-19 LSB)
Notice his sorrow. Paul is weeping. These are not pagans he is describing; they are apostates, false teachers within the church. Their teaching and their lives are a direct contradiction to the meaning of the cross. The cross means self-denial, but their god is their stomach. The cross means death to the world, but they set their minds on earthly things. The cross is the ultimate humiliation that leads to glory, but they find their glory in things that are shameful.
Who are these people? They are the antinomians, the libertines. They are those who take the grace of God and turn it into a license for sensuality. They preach a cross that saves them from the penalty of sin, but not from the power of sin. Their theology is designed to serve their appetites. "Whose god is their stomach" is not just about food. The belly is a metaphor for all fleshly appetites, be it for food, sex, comfort, praise, or power. They have made a god out of their desires. They live for the immediate gratification of the flesh.
Their "glory is in their shame." They boast about things that should cause them to blush. In our day, we see this everywhere. We see professing Christians championing sexual ethics that are an abomination to God. We see them glorying in their rebellion, calling evil good and good evil. They have inverted the moral order. And why? Because their minds are "set on earthly things." They think horizontally. Their hopes, their dreams, their treasures, and their thoughts are all bounded by this fading world. Their end, Paul says bluntly, is destruction. This path does not lead to a different kind of flourishing; it leads off a cliff.
Heaven's Colonial Charter (v. 20)
In stark contrast to those who mind earthly things, Paul defines the true Christian's orientation.
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," (Philippians 3:20 LSB)
This is one of the most misunderstood verses in the New Testament. Many Christians read this and think of themselves as waiting for a cosmic evacuation, a rapture that will airlift them out of this dirty world and take them "home" to heaven. But that is to completely miss the metaphor Paul is using. The Philippians understood it perfectly.
Philippi was a Roman colony. It was a little piece of Rome planted in Macedonia. Its citizens were Roman citizens. They lived by Roman law and promoted Roman culture. They were not there in order to one day abandon Philippi and go back to Rome for retirement. They were there to bring Rome to Philippi. They were colonists, tasked with extending the influence and rule of the capital city throughout the region.
This is the image Paul uses. Our citizenship, our politeuma, is in heaven. Heaven is our capital city. We are heaven's colonists on earth. We are not here to escape the earth, but to claim it for our King. Our mission is not evacuation, but dominion. We are here to bring the culture, the law, and the life of heaven to bear on every square inch of this earth. This is why we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Because heaven is our capital, it is the place from which our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, will come. He isn't coming to take us from the colony back to Rome. He is the Emperor, coming from Rome to inspect the colony and to complete its transformation. We are eagerly waiting for Him, not to flee, but to see His victory consummated here.
The Great Transformation (v. 21)
Paul concludes with the glorious end-game, the ultimate hope for which we wait.
"who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself." (Philippians 3:21 LSB)
When Christ returns, He will complete the project. He will "transform the body of our humble state." This body of ours is currently lowly. It is subject to decay, disease, weakness, and death. It is a body of humiliation. But on that day, it will be refashioned into the likeness of His glorious, resurrected body. This is not the annihilation of the physical, but its glorification. We do not yearn to become ethereal spirits; we yearn for the resurrection of the body. God made matter, and He is going to redeem it, all of it.
And how will this happen? "By His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself." The resurrection of our bodies is the capstone of His total victory. The power that can raise and glorify a corpse is the same power by which He is currently subjecting all of His enemies to His rule. Christ is reigning now, from the right hand of the Father. He is putting all things under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25). The final enemy to be destroyed is death itself. The transformation of our bodies is the final act in His subjugation of the cosmos. It is the exclamation point at the end of history, when every foe is vanquished and the entire creation is brought into conformity with the glory of its rightful King.
Conclusion: Which Way Are You Walking?
So we are left with the two processions. One is the parade of the belly-gods. They live for the now, for the earthly, for the appetites. They glory in their shame, and their wide road leads to destruction. The other is the procession of the colonists of heaven. They live by a different pattern, following the footsteps of the faithful. Their minds are set on things above, where their King reigns. They are waiting eagerly, not for an escape, but for their King to arrive and complete His conquest.
The cross of Christ stands at the crossroads, and it forces a choice. The enemies of the cross try to get around it. They want a crown without a cross, a resurrection without a death, a salvation without a Lord. They want to serve their stomachs and call it grace.
But the true follower of Christ embraces the cross. He dies to himself, to his appetites, to his earthly ambitions. He takes up his citizenship in the heavenly kingdom and begins the hard work of colonization, of bringing God's rule to bear in his family, his work, and his world. He knows that this lowly body will one day be made glorious, and this knowledge makes him bold. He knows that the power that will raise him from the dead is the same power that is at work in the world now, subduing all things to Christ.
Therefore, brothers, look to the pattern. Reject the belly-gods. Live as citizens of heaven. And wait eagerly for the Savior, who is not just saving you out of the world, but is coming to save the world itself, subjecting all things to His glorious rule.