Scriptural Perspective on Dual Citizenship and Allegiance
Roman citizenship in the first century carried tangible legal protections: exemption from binding or scourging without trial, and the right of appeal to Caesar [1, 2]. Paul invoked these privileges in Acts 16 and 22, demonstrating that holding civic status under an earthly empire was neither forbidden nor spiritually compromising. The question of dual citizenship—earthly and heavenly—emerges most clearly in Philippians 3:20, where Paul writes that "our citizenship is in heaven" while addressing believers who lived as Roman subjects in a Roman colony [4]. The text does not demand renunciation of earthly civic identity but reorients ultimate allegiance.
The Heavenly Citizenship as Primary
Paul's language in Philippians 3:20 uses politeuma, a term denoting the state or commonwealth to which one belongs. The commentary tradition notes that Roman citizenship was "highly prized" in Paul's day, yet the apostle elevates the heavenly citizenship as incomparably greater [4]. This is not a call to withdraw from earthly civic life but a declaration of where final loyalty resides. Believers are "pilgrims on earth," their true country existing "in the heavens," and they await Christ as Savior rather than Caesar as lord [4]. The contrast is one of ultimate authority, not geographic location or legal standing.
Ephesians 2:19 reinforces this framework by describing Gentile converts as no longer "foreigners" or "sojourners" but "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" [5]. The shift is from exclusion to inclusion in the "commonwealth of spiritual Israel," a citizenship conferred by grace rather than birth or imperial favor [5]. The language of citizenship here is ecclesial and eschatological, not a replacement for earthly civic identity but a redefinition of what constitutes the believer's primary community.
The Augustinian Framework: Two Cities
Augustine's City of God provides the most sustained patristic reflection on dual allegiance. He distinguishes between the City of God and the earthly city, two communities defined by their loves: one oriented toward God, the other toward self [6]. This is not a spatial distinction but a moral and spiritual one. Believers live as citizens of the heavenly city while sojourning in the earthly, and their participation in earthly civic structures is provisional and instrumental [6, 7]. Augustine does not counsel withdrawal but rather a recognition that earthly kingdoms are penultimate. The believer's ultimate citizenship transcends national and ethnic boundaries, a point reinforced by his insistence that God's redemptive purposes extend beyond Israel to include "even in other nations" those who belong to the fellowship of the heavenly city [7].
National and Ethnic Distinctions Relativized
The New Testament consistently subordinates national identity to spiritual unity in Christ. Charles Hodge observes that the apostles "recognize no future for the Jews in which the Gentile Christians are not to participate," and that distinctions of preeminence based on ethnicity are precluded by the doctrine that "we are all one in Christ Jesus" [3]. This does not erase ethnic or national identity but relativizes it. The typology of Esau and Jacob, or of Joseph's sons, prefigures the inclusion of Gentiles and the spiritual rather than merely ethnic character of God's people [8]. The church is not a nation-state but a transnational body whose citizenship is defined by regeneration, not genealogy.
Practical Implications for Earthly Allegiance
Calvin addresses the tension between spiritual freedom and earthly governance by distinguishing between the spiritual and civil realms. He warns against the "seditious" who would use Christian liberty to overthrow all earthly authority, insisting instead that "government is twofold" in man—one pertaining to the soul, the other to civil order [9]. The believer's heavenly citizenship does not nullify obligations to earthly authorities but places them in proper hierarchy. Obedience to earthly rulers is provisional, bounded by the higher law of God, and never absolute.
The scriptural pattern, then, is not renunciation of earthly citizenship but subordination of it. Paul did not surrender his Roman citizenship upon conversion; he used it strategically while making clear that his ultimate allegiance lay elsewhere. The believer holds dual citizenship in the sense that earthly civic identity remains real and functional, but it is always penultimate. The heavenly citizenship is the one that endures, the one that defines identity at the deepest level, and the one that will outlast every earthly empire.
Sources
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Citizenship — The use of this term in Scripture has exclusive reference to the usages of the Roman empire. The privilege of Roman citizenship was originally acquired in various ways, as by purchase, (Acts 22:28) by military services, by favor or by manumission. The right once obtained descended to a man's children. (Acts 22:28) Among the privileges attached to citizenship we may note that a man could not be bound or imprisoned without a formal trial, (Acts 22:29) still less be scourged. (Acts 16:37) Cic. in Verr. v. 63,66. Another privilege attaching to citizenship wa”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Citizenship — The rights and privileges of a citizen in distinction from a foreigner (Luke 15:15; 19:14; Acts 21:39). Under the Mosaic law non-Israelites, with the exception of the Moabites and the Ammonites and others mentioned in Deut. 23:1-3, were admitted to the general privileges of citizenship among the Jews (Ex. 12:19; Lev. 24:22; Num. 15:15; 35:15; Deut. 10:18; 14:29; 16:10, 14). The right of citizenship under the Roman government was granted by the emperor to individuals, and sometimes to provinces, as a favour or as a recompense for services rendered to the”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 88: that if there be any difference between them, it is not in virtue of national or social distinctions, but solely of individual character and devotion. That we are all one in Christ Jesus, is a doctrine 811 which precludes the possibility of the preeminence assigned to the Jews in the theory of which their restoration to their own land, and their national individuality are constituent elements. 5. The Apostles uniformly acted on this principle. They recognize no future for the Jews in which the Gentile Christians are not to participate. As”
- Philippians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Philippians 3:20: our conversation--rather, "our state" or "country"; our citizenship: our life as citizens. We are but pilgrims on earth; how then should we "mind earthly things?" (Phi 3:19; Heb 11:9-10, Heb 11:13-16). Roman citizenship was then highly prized; how much more should the heavenly citizenship (Act 22:28; compare Luk 10:20)? is--Greek, "has its existence." in heaven--Greek, "in the heavens." look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ--"We wait for (so the same Greek is translated, Rom 8:19) the Lord Jesus as a (that is, in the capacity of a) Sav”
- Ephesians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Ephesians 2:19: Now, therefore--rather, "So then" [ALFORD]. foreigners--rather, "sojourners"; opposed to "members of the household," as "strangers" is to "fellow citizens." Phi 3:19-20, "conversation," Greek, "citizenship." but--The oldest manuscripts add, "are." with the saints--"the commonwealth of (spiritual) Israel" (Eph 2:12). of God--THE FATHER; as JESUS CHRIST appears in Eph 2:20, and THE SPIRIT in Eph 2:22.”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 1--OF THIS PART OF THE WORK, WHEREIN WE BEGIN TO EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN AND END OF THE TWO CITIES. (part 1): The City Of God we speak of is the same to which testimony is borne by that Scripture, which excels all the writings of all nations by its divine authority, and has brought under its influence all kinds of minds, and this not by a casual intellectual movement, but obviously by an express providential arrangement. For there it is written, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God."(2) And in another psalm we read, "Gre”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 47.--WHETHER BEFORE CHRISTIAN TIMES THERE WERE ANY OUTSIDE OF THE ISRAELITE RACE WHO BELONGED TO THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY CITY. (part 1): Wherefore if we read of any foreigner--that is, one neither born of Israel nor received by that people into the canon of the sacred books--having prophesied something about Christ, if it has come or shall come to our knowledge, we can refer to it over and above; not that this is necessary, even if wanting, but because it is not incongruous to believe that even in other nations there may h”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 42.--OF THE SONS OF JOSEPH, WHOM JACOB BLESSED, PROPHETICALLY CHANGING HIS HANDS.: Now, as Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, furnished a type of the two people, the Jews and the Christians (although as pertains to carnal descent it was not the Jews but the Idumeans who came of the seed of Esau, nor the Christian nations but rather the Jews who came of Jacob's; for the type holds only as regards the saying, "The elder shall serve the younger" (6)), so the same thing happened in Joseph's two sons; for the elder was a type of the Je”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 74: if they can be bound with the chains of laws and constitutions at the pleasure of men. But as the knowledge of this subject is of the greatest importance, so it demands a longer and clearer exposition. For the moment the abolition of human constitutions is mentioned, the greatest disturbances are excited, partly by the seditious, and partly by calumniators, as if obedience of every kind were at the same time abolished and overthrown. 15. Therefore, lest this prove a stumbling-block to any, let us observe that in man government is t”