Philippians 3:17–4:1
The Second Sunday in Lent
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, March 16, 2025
“Walk This World as a Citizen of Heaven”
It was just a couple years ago I was with a group of pastors returning from a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If I recall correctly, it was an accident that shut down I-10 along our route, so we took a detour along with quite a few other vehicles. Driving on roads meant for much less volume and much slower speeds all the way down to Bisbee and back to Tucson meant that our 6 and-a-half-hour trip ended up taking over eight hours. That’s what comes to mind for me when I hear the word “detour.”
In my experience, detours take longer. They are not as convenient. It’s frustrating to see a road closed and a detour posted. If I could, I would rather stay on the main road, stay on the shorter path, stay on the faster route. When I take a detour, it’s usually because I have no other choice.
The theme of our service today suggests that there are some detours that people are not forced to take. Some detours are ones that people choose. While you wouldn’t choose to add a couple hours of slow, frustrating driving to a trip home, you might choose one of these detours in life when it seems that the detour is an easier path, a path that doesn’t have as much pain or challenge to it. In fact, that’s what this sort of detour is. It is choosing an easier way, an easier path, instead of staying true to what God commands and teaches in his Word. All of today’s readings connect to that idea somehow, but the section before us from Philippians 3 and 4 speaks most directly to Christians about dealing with the temptation. None of the readings actually use the word detour, but all of them recognize a different way, a different path. Paul’s letter to the Philippians looks right at it and says, “Don’t go that way.” It tells us to walk this world as a citizen of heaven.
Paul doesn’t use the word detour, but he talks about the way that enemies of the cross of Christ walk. And he makes it clear that the temptation to go that way is a real danger for the Philippians. He has warned them about it repeatedly. Now, he writes, that he is doing so while weeping. Could it be that some people who had once been a part of the church family of the Philippians had taken such a detour away from the faith? Paul was joyfully teaching the Philippians about the freedom that they had in Christ, but some may have been suggesting that freedom meant they were welcome to do all that they had done as pagans, all that the pagan people around them continued to do.
About all who follow this path, Paul warns, Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. People like this were pleased and proud of their sin. They saw the things that they did as badges of honor. They encouraged others to join in wickedness.
Wickedness is exactly what such actions were. What those people were really doing was serving their own appetites. They made their appetite into their god. The things that they selfishly wanted, they pursued. To be clear, these were the things that their sinful natures wanted for them. The things that seem to bring pleasure and happiness. The things that avoid suffering and pain. The things that meet my desires now. Paul warns that their end is destruction. A detour like our I-10 diversion is meant to still get you to the same place. Sure, it took longer, but we got where we were going when we left Albuquerque. A detour into a life of sin ends in a very different place than the life of a Christian. The detour ends in destruction. It ends in hell. Really, that means that this life ends with an existence of suffering that doesn’t end.
Paul points to his own life as a better pattern, one worth imitating. He instructs the believers to pay attention to those who, like him, are walking according to God’s Word. They are walking according to God’s will, since that is what God reveals in his Word. And Paul doesn’t just want them to observe his life and imitate it. He had taught them previously about the pattern they were to follow. He had taught them about living in love and serving others. He had taught them to focus on the needs and concerns of others above their own wishes and interests. Walking this world as a citizen of heaven means imitating
faithful patterns, the lives of faithful people who were not perfect (something Paul readily admitted) but grew in loving service to others.
The contrast couldn’t be greater between those who were thinking only about earthly things and the citizens of heaven who focused their attention on that citizenship. It was not their actions that gave them heavenly citizenship. It was their Savior. Citizenship was an important concept to the Philippians. Many in that city and in that province were former soldiers, including high-ranking soldiers. They had been awarded Roman citizenship. They cherished the rights and benefits of that status. They knew what it meant.
Citizenship in heaven is so much greater! We have a permanent place to which we belong. That is the destination we will reach. That is the goal of our life and our faith. Walking this world as a citizen of heaven means eagerly waiting for that time and that opportunity. The Savior will return and transform us. He will glorify our bodies to live forever. And it doesn’t matter if we are still alive when he returns or if we have been put in he grave. He will resurrect those who have perished and glorify all who believe in him.
Again, it is not our doing that we have citizenship in heaven. It is the work of Jesus. The one we wait for is the Savior, the one who saved us. He saved us from a headlong rush toward hell. That’s how we entered this world. That is how we would have been unless and until the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts to know and trust the Savior’s work. And the Savior’s work? He came to die. First he came to live. He lived in our place and on our behalf. He did perfectly what we could not. He walked this world in the way God wanted it walked. Even when it was a challenge. Especially when it got dangerous. He wept over a Jerusalem that would not welcome him. He refused to alter his course because a worldly leader would oppose him. He walked in a way that always showed love and service toward others and love and respect for God and his will. And he walked that way to his own death on the cross with no detour. Through faith in him is the only way we can follow any godly or faithful example. This is not to say that Christians are the only ones who an act in a way that helps a neighbor or is useful for society. God has blessed this world by using even unbelievers to accomplish his good purposes. God has given people consciences and a knowledge of his law, his will. People can do useful things. But our verses are talking about citizens of heaven who serve others out of love and thankfulness, whose actions come in response to God’s great love for them.
Citizens of heaven are on a path to heaven. That is how we walk in this world. And our lives reflect it. We want to serve God. We want to live for him. We want to show our thanks. We want to demonstrate love to the neighbors he has given us. We cannot earn heaven. We do not deserve it. Our Savior has given it as a free gift. That is the source of our thankfulness.
And that is the reason we wish to stand firm. Paul closes this section with the encouragement to keep standing firm in the Lord. He rejoices in the fellowship he enjoys with his brothers, those he loves. He calls them his joy and his crown. His example is an encouragement to them. And it is true for all of us. We support and encourage each other in our walk of faith. We look together to God and his Word. We warn each other when we see dangers. That doesn’t mean that we avoid challenges or that we shy away from difficult situations where our personal comfort is threatened. It means we work to avoid situations where our faith is threatened, where we take our eyes off of our Savior. Where we forget that any earthly citizenship we have pales in comparison to our heavenly citizenship.
In imitating faithful examples, in waiting eagerly for transformation, and in standing firm in the Lord, we walk this world as citizens of heaven. And that means no detours are allowed. No detours are necessary. No detours are useful. Stand firm.
The Text: Philippians 3:17–4:1 (EHV)
17Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. 18To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. 19Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things.
20But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.
4 So then, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, in this way keep standing firm in the Lord, my dear friends.