Aliens and Strangers

DEVOTION

THE 1ST LETTER OF PETER

ALIENS AND STRANGERS

1 Peter 2:11-12

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

NIV

First, we have to consider what it means to live as aliens and strangers, although this real issue Peter is driving at is the desire of our hearts. It is interesting that the two words, alien and stranger are together. In the Greek, at least in the classic Greek, alien means one who has a home near, neighboring, which again can imply the place we are currently living is not our home, for our home is near-by, as in the kingdom of God is near. Both John the Baptist and Jesus used those exact words, “The kingdom of God is near”. In the scripture, the word, alien carries the same meaning as one who is a resident of a different country or place and thus in the place, they are living they do not have the rights of citizenship. We have been told before that our citizenship is in heaven so we are non-citizens of the world. The Greek word translated as strangers is very similar to an alien, still, it has this co-meaning as a pilgrim, or rather a sojourner traveling in a foreign country, or residing temporarily in a foreign land. In both words we see that we are not of the world, this place is not our home, we have no citizenship rights here, we do not have a vote in how the world operates. However, we have been told to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. In conjunction with these words and how Peter is urging us to live as aliens and strangers, it behooves us to consider ourselves as ambassadors from the kingdom of God to the world. We speak for our sovereign, we represent his interests in this foreign land. Being His representatives, His ambassadors we have diplomatic immunity from the ideologies and philosophies, along with the penalties of such thinking and behaving. We are actually urged to abstain from that kind of living, even the desire of such lifestyle, or as Peter puts it, abstaining from sinful desires. In the Greek, it is written as to hold oneself off from fleshly lusts that war against our soul. Although that can apply to the sensual natures of man, those natures are given to us for the purpose, within the bond of marriage, to multiply and fill the earth. On the other hand, as we live among the pagans, we would not expose our sensual nature in public anyway, so this abstaining from sinful desires can also apply to live according to the pattern of this world. That would be engaging in, or partnering with, the way the world conducts business, government, religion, or any other traditional world concepts. We should, therefore, live free of those deceptions, and live as citizens of the kingdom of God. Now, that can cause some backlash from those whose citizenship is of the world. They might well see us as odd, crazy, off our rockers, even stupid in believing God and trusting in Jesus. They may well think our faith is simply because we are weak-minded and are not as intelligent as they are. However, it does not matter what they accuse us of, the fact is we are to live in such a manner, which means different than them, that they would see our true nature or good labor, that is being the best employee ever, as the Greek word, deeds or work means. It is not about being a holy roller, or holier than thou person, it is about being the best at what we do as sojourners, as aliens working in this foreign land. Then when Jesus comes, they will glorify God. So let us be that alien, that stranger who labors here for the glory of God.