Fellowcitizens

The Body

Paul closes this first movement’s arc with a decisive statement of belonging: no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens, and household of God. This is not a hopeful aspiration toward someday belonging, but a settled, present-tense declaration, already true, of genuine, permanent citizenship and family membership.

This matters for anyone who has entered community still feeling, functionally, like a stranger or foreigner, present but not fully belonging, tolerated but not genuinely at home. Paul’s language here is deliberately strong, insisting on the opposite, fellowcitizens, household, genuine belonging already accomplished, not merely hoped for eventually.

This closes the loop this whole first movement has traced. Not forsaking assembling, continuing stedfastly, one accord, one body, members one of another, unity, one heart and soul, all of it arriving here, at genuine citizenship and household belonging, the settled foundation everything else in this book will build upon.

Whatever stranger or foreigner feeling still lingers in your own experience of community, receive Paul’s declaration today as your own settled reality, not aspiration. Fellowcitizens. Household of God. Let this be your actual starting point, as this book turns next toward the harder, sharpening work genuine community also requires.