Foreigners and Exiles
"Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul." — 1 Peter 2:11 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, Peter writes to the exiles scattered throughout the provinces of modern-day Turkey who were refugees fleeing persecution in their original homes and were living in a foreign land. They were sojourners, aliens, pilgrims, strangers in a world hostile to their Christian faith. That reality is familiar to me, albeit not to the extreme these believers faced. We are all living as foreigners in this world. We are in the world but not of it. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20). Recognizing that I am not a part of this world any longer and that I belong to a new country, a better country according to Hebrews 11:16, I no longer give in to my sinful desires, my passions and lusts, that were part of my old way of living. I am to abstain from sinful desires. To abstain means to hold back, to keep off...