“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.”
1 Peter 2:11 NLT
Peter warns his readers “to keep away from worldly desires”. But perhaps we think that this is easier said than done because we live on this world, Planet Earth. It’s a world corrupted by sin and wickedness; we only have to read a newspaper, or, more likely, go on-line and start reading what one of the news outlets provides, to find out how bad things really are. Social media seems to be burgeoning with negative stories, many of them heart-rending in their content. So, for us pilgrims, it is a difficult place to keep apart from, and especially if we ourselves are caught up in one of the negative stories personally. We find too that there are consequences to many of the decisions and actions that we make, driven perhaps by our “worldly desires”.
But Peter started this verse with a strange concept, that his readers were “temporary residents and foreigners”, presumably in this world. How can that be, because it was into this world that each of us was born. To answer that, we have to take a step back and consider two scenarios. Firstly, our natural lives will only span a finite number of years, as we read in Psalm 90:1a, “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty … ”. So in that respect we are “temporary residents”. Planet Earth was already here when we arrived and will probably still be here when we die.
What was Peter meaning then when he said we were “foreigners” in this world? This is the second scenario and refers to that day when we pilgrims made a decision for Christ. A decision were we repented of our sins and believed in Jesus. We read in Acts 2:38, “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. That is the decision we call being born again. Jesus told Nicodemus about it in John 3:3, “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God””. The consequences of this are as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:20, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Saviour”.
There came that point where we pilgrims acquired a new passport, and it says we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead of the cover saying “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, or whatever your national passports say, our new passport says “Kingdom of Heaven” or “Kingdom of God”. We don’t however have a physical passport because this is a spiritual kingdom and God doesn’t need to issue one. Instead He has written our names in a Book, called the Lamb’s Book of Life. And the wonderful thing is that instead of only being valid for ten years, like the UK passport, it applies for all of eternity. We read about this book in Revelation 21:27, “Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”.
So, we pilgrims are indeed “temporary residents and foreigners” in this world. One day we will have no need for a UK passport, or, indeed any other passport, and can fully and totally take up our citizenship in Heaven. But back to how we started. While we are “temporary residents and foreigners” we have been warned “to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against [our] very souls.” Sound advice from a man who knew as much as anyone the dangers and temptations in living a worldly life. In 1 John 4:4-6 we can read what the Apostle John wrote about worldly people. “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.” Paul, the Apostle, wrote in Romans 8:37, and referring to the difficulties of living in the world, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us”.
In God, and through the Holy Spirit who lives within us, we can live a life in the right Kingdom. It isn’t easy, and sometimes we will slip up. But our Heavenly Father is quick to forgive us for our sins, and we are free to move onwards and upwards into our calling in Christ.
Dear Father God. Thank You that You have recorded our names in Your Book of Life, sealing our Heavenly citizenship. What a wonderful gift! Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 