To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood . . .”

If you are a Christian, you are a strange person in the eyes of the world – very strange.  One term the Bible uses to describe believers in the passage above is “exiles.” Some versions of the Bible translate this word as “strangers.” Hebrews 11:13-16 reiterates this by saying that believers of ages past “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”  Further, it tells us that “people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland (and that)If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” 

Christians are different from other people because, unlike other people, they don’t view this earth as their primary home. They see themselves as visitors here, in a sense. It’s like a person who is born in a different country, but whose parents are both citizens of the United States. By virtue of their birth, they are citizens of a land where they’ve never been.  Likewise, every believer in Jesus Christ has been “born again,” a phrase that can also be translated “born from above.”  They are born on earth but are citizens of another place – and that place is heaven, a place where they’ve never been (yet, that is).  And although they live on earth, they are marked by some very strange marks of their true citizenship.  They were given new birth and became citizens of heaven by the “foreknowledge of God.” He chose to give them both physical and spiritual life, and He chose to set His love upon them before they ever knew Him. As Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16).  They know that they are believers only because of this. And so they, every one of them, acknowledge that it is “by grace (they) have been saved through faith. And this is not (their) own doing; it is the gift of God,not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  They don’t see themselves as “good people” deserving of God’s favor. Rather, they acknowledge that they are sinners, undeserving of the least of His favor, yet they are loved by Him because of His incredible grace. As a result, they don’t serve God because they are trying to earn His favor and prove how good they are. Rather, they serve him out of gratitude for what HE has done, in spite of who they are. 

Another reason Christians are strange in the eyes of this world is because they have been “sanctified by the Spirit,” in the words of 1 Peter 1 above. That means they have been “set apart” from this world and “set apart” unto God.  Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, they have within them a “new heart” (Ezekiel 35:26), with new desires which are different from any desires that they had before. Those desires are to do everything they do to the glory of God.  Again as 1 Peter 1 puts it, it’s a desire to obey Jesus Christ, for such obedience glorifies God.  That’s something the world without Christ knows nothing of. It’s not why they are living. It’s not a part of their world.  But for the Christian, the alien, the stranger in this world, this defines who they are.  We see this repeatedly in the Scriptures. For example, here is how Paul talks about it in his letter to Titus 2: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14). 

So, is that how you would describe yourself, or does this all sound very strange?  If it’s foreign to your way of thinking, it’s because this world is your home. You’re not here from some other place.  But if God is calling you by His grace, know that you can become a citizen of heaven by repenting of your sins and asking Him to be the Lord of your life.  That’s how one is born again into God’s family and becomes a citizen of heaven, that wonderfully strange and glorious place.