<p>3:20- see on Mt. 6:10.</p><p><i>For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ</i>- When Paul speaks of redemption, he alludes to the practice of manumission, whereby a slave could be redeemed by his master and given the breathtaking gift of the much coveted Roman citizenship. Thus there were slaves who actually became Roman citizens. Hence here he invites all of us to see ourselves as a citizen of a Heavenly state (Phil. 3:20). We learn from Acts 22:26 that Paul was a Roman citizen from birth. The question therefore arises as to how they obtained citizenship. It would not have been through army service, because they were observant Jews (Phil. 3:5) and Jews didn&rsquo;t serve in the army. &ldquo;The most common origin of this status for Jews outside Palestine was the manumission of Jewish slaves by masters who were themselves Roman citizens. In this case the citizenship was acquired&hellip; after one or two generations&rdquo; Simon Legasse, &lsquo;Paul&rsquo;s pre-Christian career&rsquo; <u>in</u> Richard Bauckham, ed.,<i> The Book Of Acts</i> Vol. 4 (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995) p. 372.. So it seems Paul's father may have been &lsquo;redeemed&rsquo; by manumission. And yet he uses the very language of manumission about all who are redeemed and freed in Christ.&nbsp; Roman citizenship was the most coveted thing in the Roman empire. Phil. 3:20 claims that we <i>all</i> have the coveted citizenship of the Kingdom / empire of Heaven. The Judaizers were minding earthly things (:19); but our minds should be full of Heavenly things. We are pressing towards the goal of being made fully like the Lord Jesus (:10,14), and this pressing towards that is spoken of here as eagerly awaiting the second coming. Rom. 8:23 uses the same word for &quot;eagerly wait&quot; in describing how we who have the spirit / mind of Christ therefore and thereby eagerly await the redemption / manumission of our bodies. And Paul is to speak of this in :21. It is by or on account of the Spirit that we &quot;eagerly await&quot; the Lord's coming (Gal. 5:5). The Spirit is progressively at work in us, transforming us into His mind- and so due to that work, the work of our lives and hearts, we eagerly await the moment when we shall be fully changed into His image. This is why all who eagerly look for His coming on this spiritual basis shall be saved (Heb. 9:28; 2 Tim. 4:8). We note the connection of thought with 2 Tim. 4:8, written by Paul apparently at the end of his life in Rome: &quot;From this time forward there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me alone, but also to all those that have loved his appearing&quot;. This would be further reason for thinking that Philippians and 2 Timothy were written at around the same time, at the end of Paul's life and imprisonment in Rome. See on 2:16.</p>