06/23/2026
"Kissing the bride through the veil." That's how one of my professors at Hebrew Union College vividly described reading the Bible in translation. A kiss is a kiss, to be sure, but skin on skin is always preferable.
That's why anytime we can "kiss" the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek of the original text, well, pucker up. Often, the original has connotations that are difficult, if not impossible, to get across fully in translation.
One of the verses we read today in Bible in One Year is like that: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…” (Philippians 1:27).
That translation is accurate, but it can come across in English as if Paul were merely saying, “Behave yourselves,” or “Try to live a decent life.”
But the Greek word Paul uses carries far more cultural and political weight than “conduct yourselves” or “let your manner of life.”
The verb is πολιτεύομαι (politeuomai). If you have a hunch, based on the "polit-" beginning, that it has something to do with politics or political life, you're not wrong.
πολιτεύομαι is the language of citizenship, public identity, civic loyalty, and belonging to a kingdom. A more literal rendering would sound something like this: “Live as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
That matters enormously because Paul is writing to the church in Philippi, a city nicknamed “little Rome.” Roman citizenship was treasured. It was a badge of pride and allegiance. Your citizenship shaped how you understood your place in the world.
The townspeople would πολιτεύομαι in this way: “living as citizens worthy of Rome.”
Paul takes that familiar civic language and turns it upside down.
In essence, he says, “Yes, you live in a Roman colony. But Rome is not your true homeland.” As he says later in the letter, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).
That does not mean Christians abandon earthly responsibilities. It means that beneath every earthly identity is a more fundamental one. We belong first to the kingdom of God, to Christ our King.
Paul’s point in Philippians 1:27 is not simply behavioral: “Be good people.”
It is: “Live like the citizens of heaven that you already are by virtue of Christ your King.”
