Most people today live in cities of one sort or another, a "city" being defined by Mr. Webster as "a place inhabited by a large, permanent, organized community." People may or may not choose the city they live in, but once they're there, they're a functioning, organic part of that city, with various rights and responsibilities as set out by the municipal authorities.

For Christians, however, it is not so simple. We live in not one, but three cities—the physical city that establishes our residential address, and two others that represent where we live spiritually and philosophically. It was the great Church father Augustine who first introduced the concept of a Christian's "dual citizenship" some 1,500 years ago.

In his insightful work "City of God," Augustine points out that we belong to two cities simultaneously—the "City of Man" and the "City of God." The City of Man he explains as being the "world system," symbolized most dramatically by the ancient city of Babylon. The City of God, of course, is where God is, and where we should be.

Augustine makes the fundamental distinction that the City of Man glorifies itself, while the City of God glorifies God. He says: "The one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God ... The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, 'Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."

In a fascinating book I picked up recently in the US, "Jesus in the Midst of Success" by authors Charles and Janet Morris, this concept of the two cities is investigated in some depth. According to them, the "city" theme runs through the Bible from beginning to end.

"The promise of the City of God first occurs in Genesis, and continues to the closing pages of the Bible ... As followers of Christ, we know we are called to be in the world and yet not to be of it ... our consciences cringe from the compromises and rationalizations we make, but the pressures are great.

"We feel the constant anxiety of trying to serve two masters and still remain faithful to a single love. We live simultaneously in two diametrically opposed worlds, and we face a daily question: How can we deal with the realities of the City of Man, while still remaining loyal to the City of God, which is our eternal home?

"The City of Man is in competition with the City of God. It is attempting to imitate God's wisdom and strength and honor and glory, while it ignores God and goes about its business as if God does not exist ... As citizens of the City of God, God is our glory, not ourselves. He lifts us up by giving us Himself. He is ours and we are His. His love is our value, our status, our identity, our satisfaction, our glory," the authors point out.

Kingdom business professionals are no strangers to this dichotomy, having to live as righteous people of integrity in the midst of a system riddled with dishonesty and selfishness. We have, as it were, one leg in God's kingdom, and the other leg still firmly planted in the kingdom of this world.

But being part of a corrupt world does not give us any excuse to operate in the same way. On the contrary, Jesus Himself tells us to be "salt" and "light," purifying and bringing godly illumination into the dark and dirty corners of the marketplace. As Charles and Janet Morris say, "Satan is a significant player in this drama. His influence is largely hidden, but Scripture calls him the 'ruler of this world' (John 12:31, NASB). He was the behind-the-scenes plotter of the rebellion that spawned the City of Man."

Let's take a closer look at the two cities we inhabit over the next two issues of Breakthrough Word.