Don't go native--Press On

 Read Philippians 3

In 1991, I was sent to Iraq and Kuwait as part of a United Nations mission that permitted most of the Coalition Forces to return home.  There were 20 American officers assigned to this mission.  Of those, 5 were Marine officers.  I was the senior officer.

As I went from Headquarters Marine Corps to the Pentagon and to Fort Meyer in the days preceding my flight to Southwest Asia, I received much support but little advice.  There was one piece of counsel that I did receive and remembered.  It was simple.

Don’t go native.

What did that mean?  Remember who you are.  You are not only an American but a Marine officer as well.  We have standards and it doesn’t matter that you are the senior officer for hundreds of miles around, you do what you know the Corps requires.

My citizenship was in the United States of America.  I was the example of an American officer, and a Marine officer.  I might have been a pain in the neck on occasion, ok, on multiple occasions.

Paul tells us:

Don’t go native.

This world is not your home.  Don’t adopt its customs and ways.  Don’t put stock in what the world says is important.  There is nothing wrong with having a few degrees hanging in your office.  There is nothing wrong with the door to your office reading: BOSS.

There is nothing wrong with being labeled an expert in your field.  There is nothing wrong with winning the spelling bee, though I have seen your text messages and I don’t think any of you had to deal with that accolade.

All of those things are just fine but they don’t define or compose or makeup who we are.  We are God’s handiwork and our part is to be a testimony for him. 

Our very lives are to be lived so we are his light and his love and a testimony to what God has done for us.  That also happens to be our commission.

We are the church, but who is the church.  What is the church?

The church is made up of those whom God has called out of the world, whom he set apart for himself, and whom he has now sent into the world as his emissaries and messengers and witnesses—as his disciples.

The world is where we serve.  It is not our home.

Our citizenship is in heaven.  The world is our mission field.

Yes, you have a house here.  You call it a home because you want it to be like the real home that God has prepared for you, but the dwelling that you live in now is only temporary.

You are a citizen of heaven.  Your citizenship is in God’s kingdom.  We belong to God and are sent into this world, but we don’t go native.

The tendency is for people—including Christians—to want to blend in with the world, with everyone around them.  Some want to stand out to attract attention for themselves and hopefully gain the world’s approval, but most just want to blend in, to go with the flow.

Paul reminds us that blending in with the world is going native.  We belong to God and our home is in his kingdom.

Sometimes, this whole work-in-progress thing gets us off course, but we must not forget that God already sees the masterpiece that he made us to be.

We must not forget we belong to God, so listen to Paul’s words as we close.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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.

It is time to start believing that we are the masterpiece that God made us to be.  We press on and work on being what God has already made us to be and trust him to finish that good work.

Amen.