“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”
Being part of something bigger than yourself means that you are never alone. Loneliness comes when we are self-focused and connected only to our own universe. Following Jesus is about being on a mission greater than yourself — you can’t spread the Gospel to the world by yourself. Even Paul understood that. We are citizens of a supernatural world that’s only visible in glimpses right now. When we all put our pieces of the kingdom of God together, the picture comes in just a little more clearly.
No enemy can stand against the unified, global church. When facing life or death situations, Paul didn’t back down. He saw that standing up to his enemies is precisely what gave them a heads up about their own destruction. Most haters are just posers, and when their tactics don’t work it gets inside their heads. Satan is the prime example. When Christians aren’t threatened by him, it only serves to remind him of his coming demise.
Faith is a struggle. It was a struggle for the early church and it is a struggle today. Living a life worthy of the Gospel means that we rise up together. We fight together. We stand together. We love together. Jesus himself prayed for this level of unity in John 17. Is this what you think of when you see Christians interacting with each other and the world? A united group living out the good news of Jesus on a daily basis? Sadly, not all “Christians” are living as heaven-citizens. What would it look like for us to stand together, loving the world with a supernatural power against which no enemy could stand? That is the true power of the church if we will rise to our calling.