For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Hebrews 13:14
When I was a young man, I spent a summer working on a painting project with a group of other young people. Some of the other workers were sons of soldiers at the nearby military base. Among the topics that came up as we worked was where we had come from. I told of where I was born and grew up, and others did the same. But the army ‘brats’ had no sense of a hometown or a place where they had roots. One had actually been born in Germany, and all of them could recall growing up in half a dozen different communities as their fathers were posted to one military base after another. They simply had no place that they could go back to and call it home. Christians are a little different from army brats, in that our lack of a permanent home here is not because we have none to go back to but because we do have one to look forward to.
Our text speaks of us having no continuing city. That is because the world into which we were born is no longer our home. We do tend to cling a little too tightly to this world. We buy property, gather possessions and interests, and otherwise push down roots in our earthly dwelling place. Most of these things are legitimate and reasonable, because while we are here we need to provide for ourselves and our families, and we have to relate in many ways to the world around us. But we need to be careful that the roots don’t go so deep that our interest in earthly things take priority over those things that relate to our eternal abode.
Christians need to occupy in this world, but we don’t need to be occupied by this world. If we seek those things that are above, we will notice that the things of this world are not as attractive. And the more interested we are in Heaven, the less interested we will be in earth. How do we find out about Heaven? Only one source is reliable on that subject, and it is the Word of God. Scripture tells us much about Heaven. But because the most important aspect of Heaven is the presence of our God, we can learn about Heaven by studying Him. The more we know about God, the more we will know of Heaven. But as Christians, we can not only know about God, we can actually know Him personally. And the better we know Him, the more interested we become in where He dwells.
Seeking the city to come is the key to joy in our souls and success along our Christian pathway. – Jim MacIntosh