Texts in Conversation
In Philippians, Paul says believers' citizenship is in heaven. In the Shepherd of Hermas, the Shepherd uses a similar image of believers as foreigners in a city whose ruler may expel them, to urge them not to buy fields and houses there.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philippians 3:20
New Testament
18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.
Shepherd of Hermas 50:1
Early Christian
1 He said to me: “You know that you, who are the servants of God, are living in a foreign land; for your city is far from this city. If you know your city, where you are going to live, why do you acquire fields and costly furnishings and buildings and extra rooms here, which are unnecessary? 2 So whoever acquires these things in this city does not intend to return to their own city. 3 You foolish, double-minded, miserable person, do you not see that all these things are foreign, and are under the power of someone else? For the lord of this city will say, ‘I do not want you to live in my city; go away from this city, for you do not follow my laws.’ 4 So you who have fields and houses and many other possessions—when you are driven out by him, what will you do with your field and your house and all the other things you prepared for yourself? For the master of this place is right to say to you, ‘Either conform to my laws, or leave my land.’ 5 Then what will you do, you who are under law in your own city? For the sake of your fields and the rest of your possessions, will you altogether renounce your law and follow the law of this city? Watch out: renouncing your law may be disastrous; for if you want to return again to your city, you certainly will not be welcomed, because you rejected the law of your city, and you will be shut out from it. 6 So take care: as you live in a foreign land, prepare nothing for yourself except enough to get by, and be ready so that whenever the master of this city wants to drive you out for resisting his law, you may leave his city and go to your own city, and keep your own law joyfully, free from insults.
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Notes and References
“... The Shepherd’s depiction of Christians as foreigners who currently inhabit and must live properly within an earthly city in light of their really belonging to a far off one to which they will one day go coheres strongly with the contents of Pauline letters. [...] A more mature construal of the Pauline tension between the believer’s being at home and away and the priority of one over the other is found in Paul’s letter to Philippi. There Paul postulated that believers held citizenship in another realm beyond the earthly one. According to him, the believer’s “commonwealth (πολίτευμα) exists in heaven, from where we also eagerly await a savior, (the) Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20). [...] For Paul, the notion of holding citizenship elsewhere does not allow the believer to avoid the burden of ethical responsibility in the present, earthly city. ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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