There is a lot of controversy these days regarding non-citizens living in the US. Some non-citizens are here legally; they followed the law and live here lawfully. Others did not follow the law; they came into the country illegally and remain here illegally. It seems like some of our elected officials are in favor of allowing illegal immigrants to live here.

Those of us who were born in this country should appreciate the great privilege of citizenship in the US. In spite of its many flaws and failures, the US is still a good country to live in. It could be much better; and we hope that it will be better in the future. All things considered, I’m glad to be a citizen of the USA.

But that’s not the only place that I hold citizenship. The Christian is a citizen of two realms, one physical and one spiritual. One is an earthly political establishment, the other is a spiritual kingdom. We are citizens of both the earth and of heaven. We have earthly, political responsibilities, and we have heavenly, spiritual responsibilities. And we dare not ignore or neglect either set of duties.

Unfortunately, conflicts often erupt between these two realms. Earthly values conflict with heavenly values. Earthly life crowds out heavenly life. When the value systems of the two kingdoms collide, which value system do we follow? Which is more important to us—citizenship in the US or citizenship in heaven? Do we have a higher allegiance to our earthly country or to our heavenly home?

We would do well to consider with which realm our ultimate loyalties lie. Our citizenship in heaven should be our most valuable citizenship. Our highest loyalty is to God, and our true and eternal home is in heaven.

Today we are continuing our Summer Sermon Series on Christian identity. Our focus today is on our identity as dual citizens. We maintain citizenship here on earth, and we hold citizenship in heaven. We have a physical home and a spiritual home. We have obligations and responsibilities in both realms. We identify with both the physical world and the heavenly kingdom.

Let’s consider our dual citizenship and how that affects our identity.