I’ve been thinking today about citizenship. Acts 22:28 What does it mean to be a citizen? My simple answer, it means TO BELONG.
Paul was rescued by the Roman soldiers from the hands of the Jews, but ‘the commander ordered him flogged and questioned to find out why the Jews were shouting at him like this’. Just as they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty”? They immediately withdrew. Rome was the super power of the day and to flog one of it’s citizens illegally would have been a risky thing to do, especially one born a citizen.
It’s interesting that in Acts 16, Paul didn’t reveal to the jailer that he was a Roman citizen until after he’d been severely flogged and put in stocks. It may be that he kept silent so that the jailer and his family could come to salvation! A high price to pay to see someone come to faith.
Ephesians 2:12 tells us we were without hope, “ remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without HOPE and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”.
Many people in the world today are stateless, refugees. They don’t belong anywhere and have no one to plead their case and fight for them which is a tragedy. Like the Gentiles in Eph. 2 they are people without hope.
In the film/movie, Crocodile Dundee, Mick was asked what this place was called. He replied, ‘Belonga Mick’ (Mick’s Place). Thank God today, that we are not refugees but ambassadors on earth. Thank God we can say and mean it, ‘Belonga Jesus’.