Commonwealth

The figurative sense of a heavenly polity — a body of citizens whose civic belonging lies elsewhere — is gathered under this umbrella from a single Pauline verse.

Citizenship in Heaven

Paul locates the believing community's civic identity outside the present order: "For our citizenship is in heaven; from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Php 3:20). The UPDV renders the noun as "citizenship," capturing the figure that under the term "commonwealth" places the church's political belonging in the heavens, with the awaited Savior as its returning sovereign.