Today’s Scripture Reading

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.PHILIPPIANS 3:20-21

Today’s Devotional Reading

The Heavenly Goal

The background of Phillipians 3 seems to be the appearance of the Judaizers in Philippi. They apparently had not made much headway with their emphasis on the observance of the Law and their quarreling over unessential matters. Paul himself had possessed the righteousness of the Law, which the Judaizers were preaching, to a marked degree (vv. 4–6). But he now counts it as refuse or rubbish (v. 8). His whole dependence was on Christ. His one aim was to know him.

Paul pictures himself as in a race, straining every nerve and muscle and exerting every ounce of strength, like a runner, with bulging veins, lest he fall short of the goal. That goal was that he might attain the resurrection from the dead (v. 11). This was the secret of Paul’s life. He had had a glimpse of the glory of heaven (2Co 12:4) and was determined that he would, by the grace of Christ, get there, with as many others as he could possibly persuade to come along.

This chapter is one of the fullest statements of Paul’s own, personal hope of heaven, where our citizenship is (v. 20). We are strangers here; our homeland is there. Our walk is here; our hearts are there.

Today’s devotional reading is pulled from: NIV Halley’s Study Bible