“Observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us…”

Read Phillipians 3:17 – 4:1


“Observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us…”

Phillipians 3:17 (NAS)

“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk, according to the pattern you have in us...for our citizenship is in heaven…”

The author of the Letter to the Phillipians, is exhorting all to follow the example that he has set with the warning that destruction is the end result for choosing to set ones mind on earthly things. Since our citizenship is in heaven, I have had to reflect on what this means for me in my life still here on Earth. While Jesus was alive he said often that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Therefore this certainly does not mean that Heaven is to be thought of as some place to which we go after our death, although Paul does allude to this.

Living in the Kingdom then means living as Jesus described and did…showing mercy, showing love to a neighbor that includes the Samaritan…the outcast and the marginal. When I am in community with those outside my usual group of friends, work colleagues, and get to know those in the homeless population that are participating as equals in our worship, who are sharing their gifts as well as their failures, I am acutely aware that I am “living in the kingdom,” a kingdom that is indeed at hand, a kingdom that is inclusive, that shows radical hospitality as Jesus did by dining with those considered unclean and to be avoided. And I am gifted with a reciprocal love and the realization that we are all alike, regardless of our outer garments, our station in life. We are there all being transformed as we are empowered and empower one another with the most radical change agent possible….love that knows no boundaries.
Mary J. Wade (Birmingham, AL)
Prayer:
God of love, God of Truth, open me and enable me to walk as you have demonstrated through the words and life of the Christ, so that I may truly live in the Kingdom here on Earth. Amen.