To live out our heavenly citizenship is to be brought down to earth and do all things without grumbling or disputing. Paul refers to citizenship twice in this letter, in 1:27 – as a verb, to be a citizen – and in 3:20. Especially from 3:20, ‘our citizenship is in heaven’, we understand this comprises our pilgrim status as Christians. ‘This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through’, sings Jim Reeves. But that is not what Paul means. What he means by heavenly citizenship is a status indeed, but as representing the highest authority in heaven, Christ, here on earth. Jesus is Lord. He has the name above all names. And the world needs to know that. The world needs to see the reality of it. So if we keep on grumbling and disputing, the world will not believe.
Two elements add to our living out our heavenly citizenship, joy and fearlessness, amidst opposition. Indeed, just passin’ through until we shake mother’s hand at heaven’s open door is a bit of a distorted picture of the Christian life. The Church is to proclaim here and now the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Conflict (1:30) is inevitable. But to live is Christ, says Paul, to die is gain. What seems to be failure and defeat will turn out to be victory. The fellowship of Christ’s sufferings entails the fellowship of His resurrection power and will ultimately mean the resurrection in glory. Christ’s resurrection is a fait accompli. He reigns. He reigns with a power with which He can subject all things, even death.
Paul’s message probably lies somewhere in between pre-millennialism pessimism and post-millennialism optimism (he does not belong to either camp). His concern is the gospel and that is why his concern is the quality of spiritual life in the Church as well. A good presentation of the gospel will cause the Church to want to gain Christ at any cost. That will make the Church fearless in the midst of opposition, which will in turn advance the spreading of the gospel – a nuclear reaction. Paul may be bound with chains, the Word of God is not bound (2 Tim. 2:9); on the contrary. Paul is a realist. In Thessalonica the believers are accused of turning the world upside down; in Athens the harvest is only a handful of converts. The gospel spreads like wildfire, but a lot of shaking off of the dust on disciples’ feet must be done as well. The Kingdom of God is real. Jesus is on the throne. Paul’s urge is to live accordingly.

Paul’s prayer for the Philippians is that they will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. For himself he has counted loss what was gain to him so that he may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
This letter is not doctrinal but hortatory. Paul’s intention is not to explain what is righteousness. He compares one kind of life with another kind of life and in order to advance in the one he counts the other rubbish. It is either or. The two types are antagonistic. They cannot go together. That being clear, the text still raises a few questions, both about the righteousness Paul prays for and the righteousness he hopes to be found having himself.
In Paul’s prayer for the Philippians we may ask if ‘the fruit’ is produced by righteousness or that righteousness itself is the fruit. From the Greek grammer it can be concluded unambiguously that Paul means the fruit consisting of righteousness. So Paul’s concern here is righteous behaviour. Therefore we should not be tempted to look any further than that. To go from here into ‘the doctrine of justification’ will cause us to miss the point.
In his statement of counting righteousness that comes from the law as rubbish, that he may be found in Christ, having righteousness which comes through faith in Christ, Paul again speaks about behaviour in essence, but rooted in his new found relationship with God: to be found in Christ, having a special kind of righteousness, a righteousness that reflects Christ Himself. It is righteousness that can be seen, that is evidently present in Paul’s life. However, this kind of righteousness cannot be compared with law observance. It is the righteousness from God that is based on faith in Christ expressed in lifestyle and character. And if we want to know how that kind of righteousness looks like, we ought to look at Christ Jesus Himself, the One Who went the way of the cross.
Jesus says, ‘For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven’ (Matth. 5:20).

When the apostles write about boldness (from the same Greek word translated courage) they often refer to boldness toward the Lord. John mentions it twice in his first letter in connection with the Lord’s return (1 John 2:28 and 4:17). Boldness certainly functions as a kind of barometer with Paul, a check. He speaks of always having a clear conscience toward both God and man. But here he means a different kind of boldness. Paul hopes to have full boldness, a hope he bases on the prayers of his Philippian brethren and on the Holy Spirit and in connection with the trial he will undergo soon, in fact ‘now’. That brings to mind what Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, asking the Church to pray for him, ‘that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.’ It may be significant that he mentions the Spirit in that connection as well, ‘praying at all times in the Spirit’. Paul is aware that he needs the Spirit. It is not just courage he needs because of difficulties he faces, but the Spirit given boldness of speech that the Lord Jesus promised to His disciples when they are ‘dragged before governors and kings for My sake’ (Matth. 10:18-20). What they are to say will be given to them in that hour. ‘For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.’ In Acts 4 the believers pray, ‘Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, …’ The outcome was, ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.’

Full courage is something we can only hope for. We do not know how we react when we are threatened with death for the sake of Christ and the gospel. We may think we are fully dedicated to the Lord and of course we say we will be faithful to Him till the bitter end. Paul seems to be less certain about himself, in spite of him saying that now as always Christ will be magnified in his body. He links this courage with the prayer of the Philippians and with the Holy Spirit. He realizes that this lies beyond his natural capability. The shame he dreads does not depend on the outcome of the trial but stands over against Christ being magnified. That Christ is magnified is and will be his own victory.
We may marvel at the courage of missionaries and marters when we read or hear their stories. Yet survivors always say, ‘It wasn't me.’ It is ‘the other reality’, the reality of the Kingdom of God, that is ushered in by trusting the Lord in a certain situation. It is what the Lord Jesus Himself has promised to his disciples. So this courage rather depends on God’s faithfulness than on ours. And this is what a life of faith is all about, clinging to the faithfulness of God. Otherwise we would be hopelessly lost.