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CHRISTIAN LIFE: Living as Strangers
The Christian believer should be different…..
An interesting question is found near the end of Peter’s second epistle. With his life on earth drawing to its close, and appreciating the transient nature of earthly things, Peter asked his readers, “What manner of persons ought ye to be?” (2 Pet.3:11 KJV). The question remains relevant in this twenty-first century too. As believers, how should we be living? What kind of people should we be before the watching world?
Answers to this question can be found in Peter’s writings as well as in many other places in the Word of God. There can be no doubt that the Christian believer should be living in a different way from the ungodly. In our unconverted days there was nothing unusual in going along with “the will of the Gentiles” as we lived for ourselves and followed their ungodly ways (1 Pet.4:3). However, when we were converted, that old lifestyle was expected to change. Unsaved people ought to recognize that we are different – and they may be critical of us. Looking at a believer, the ungodly may “think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (1 Pet.4:4). They may actually “speak evil” of us as if we were “evildoers” rather than being God’s children, as we are (1 Pet.3:16).
A little earlier Peter had addressed his readers as “strangers and pilgrims,” imploring them to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Pet.2:11). A stranger is someone who doesn’t really belong in the environment where he is living. In the eyes of those who do belong (perhaps on account of race) he stands apart. A pilgrim is one who is travelling somewhere else. He is on the move, passing through that place. He has no intention of settling anywhere but at his final destination.
By comparing 1 Peter 2:12 and 3:16 we discover a common theme. Both verses raise the distinct possibility that the ungodly will “speak against” or “falsely accuse” the believer for being different. If believers are “strangers and pilgrims,” as Peter states (2:11), it is hardly surprising that the ungodly will find fault with us. They recognize that we don’t “fit in” with them. When a large flock of identical birds is joined by one of a different species, the new bird stands out from the rest and may be attacked by the others which resent it being with them. The Christian believer may receive similar treatment from the ungodly.
FOLLOWING HIS MASTER
Peter wrote his epistles as “an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet.1:1; 2 Pet.1:1). He had been an eye-witness of His majesty when the Father’s voice “from the excellent glory” declared His pleasure in His beloved Son (2 Pet.1:16-18). Peter had left all to follow the Lord Jesus. He had become a stranger and a pilgrim in this world, for he had discovered the all-sufficiency found in his Master. There was no other he could turn to. Christ possessed “the words of eternal life,” and Peter was certain that He was “the Son of the living God” (Jn.6:68,69).
In order to understand our place in this world we need to reflect on the teaching that Peter had heard from the lips of His Master. Jesus had spoken of leaving His disciples and returning to heaven in order to prepare a place for them but had promised to return to “receive” them unto Himself and transport them to His Father’s house (Jn.14:2,3). In the verses following, the Lord Jesus made plain to the disciples that all they needed was to be found in Him. He offered His peace to them – a peace totally different from anything to be found in the world and its systems (Jn.14:27).
In John 15 He spoke of Himself as the Vine in order to show the disciples how they could not live apart from Him. He explained in John 15:19 the very same truths that Peter later declared in his epistles. His disciples were “not of the world” but were “chosen … out of the world” and were therefore hated by the world. Peter had cautioned believers not to be surprised by the world’s hatred. Why had he said such a thing? The reason is that he was simply repeating what he had heard from the lips of the Lord Jesus who was hated without a cause (Jn.15:25).
FROM TEACHING TO PRAYER
John 13:1 introduces what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” as Jesus poured out His heart to His disciples. In those four chapters (John 13-16) we are drawn closer to Him than anywhere else in the New Testament. As we have said already, the Lord Jesus wanted to wean His disciples from the world so that they might find everything they needed in Him. That discourse closes with a striking contrast in John 16:33. In the world those disciples would experience tribulation, but the “good cheer” offered to them and to us is that the Lord Jesus has overcome the world. In other words, we do not belong in the world that rejected Him. While we are here we are to find our satisfaction in Him.
With the teaching over, the Lord Jesus turned to His Father in prayer. John 17 is a study in itself, and we could never do justice to its precious truths in such a short article as this. The disciples had been given by God the Father to the Lord Jesus, and He had manifested the Father to them (Jn.17:6). The Lord Jesus made His followers the theme of His prayer. He was interceding for them, not for the people of the world (Jn.17:9). His first request was for the Father to keep them after His return to heaven (Jn.17:11). Up until that point the Lord Jesus had kept them, but now He was committing them to the Father’s care (Jn.17:12).
As the prayer unfolds we discover more of the Lord’s concern for His followers. He knew they were “hated” in the world because – like Him – they did not belong to the world (Jn.17:14). At a future time, in accordance with His promise in John 14:3, He would take them out of the world – but not yet. The Lord’s prayer was that they might be kept from the evil existing in the world (Jn.17:15). A very important principle is revealed here, expressed in the following words: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn.17:16).
GRASPING THIS TRUTH
It is vital to grasp the truth expressed by the Lord Jesus in this verse. His people are intimately and inseparably joined to Him. He died “to deliver us from this present evil world” (Gal.1:4). As we have seen in John 17, believers have been given by the Father to the Lord Jesus. He was not recognized in the world (Jn.1:10) and did not belong here. In exactly the same way that He was “not of the world”, His people stand on the same ground.
However, although we do not belong here, we have a work to do for the Lord, for we have been “sent” into the world by Him (Jn.17:18). How can we possibly survive in a world that hates the people of God and threatens them with persecution? Added to this, the world is an utterly corrupt place. How can we keep apart from its defilement? The answer is found in this prayer. We need to be “sanctified” (or set apart) in order to be effective for the Lord (Jn.17:17,19). This sanctification is “through Thy truth” and through the word of truth (Jn.17:17). Along with the Word of God, we also have the Spirit of God who is able to keep us in response to the Lord’s parting request before He left this scene.
AN ONGOING MINISTRY
While the prayer of the Lord Jesus initially concerned His first disciples, the scope of the prayer broadened out to include all who would later believe (Jn.17:20). Those precious prayer requests therefore concern us too! The Lord’s purpose is for His own to be with Him for all eternity, beholding His glory (Jn.17:24). What can compare with that? The pleasures of this world pale into insignificance before such a prospect!
Writing as an aged believer, John exhorted his readers to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 Jn.2:15). We must not be conformed to its systems (Rom.12:2). We need to hold the things of the world lightly but grasp eternal realities tightly. Our lifespan is short, but eternity is never-ending.