SOJOURNERS UNDER SURVEILLANCE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 28, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: November 28, 2018 from 1 Peter 2:11-12
Theme: In light of the fact that the world watches us, it’s good to remember who we represent.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Social experts are saying that we are the most ‘surveilled’ culture in human history. It’s remarkable how, when someone commits a serious crime or threatens the security of our people, they are capable of being found and brought to justice in a matter of a few hours just through a few camera shots or videos. We are truly being watched.
As believers, however, this should not surprise us or disturb us. God has already let us know that we are being watched to a remarkable degree. The unsaved people around us—our unbelieving family members, and friends, and neighbors, and workmates, and schoolmates—are all carefully scrutinizing our lives. They can’t help but do so, and we should not expect it to be otherwise; because God has placed us before them for that very reason. They are evaluating the Christian faith—not just on the basis of what we say to them, but also on the basis of how they see us live it out.
We receive good instruction from the apostle Peter, then, when we read what he wrote to persecuted Christians in a hostile world:
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:11-12).
These two verses serve as the introduction to a whole new section in Peter’s letter that tells us how to live the kind of lives that testify of our faith in Jesus Christ (2:13-4:6). He touches on such areas as our respect for our government and our leaders, our faithfulness on our jobs and in relation to our employers, our relationships as husbands and wives, and even our responses toward those who do us wrong. And as these two verses show us, it’s all so that we will know how to live in such a way that the unbelieving people around us will be more open to hear the truth of the gospel we preach.
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Note how Peter sets the tone. He begins by calling his readers, “beloved”. Some of them had probably not always behaved as the best representations of the Christian faith to those around them. Some may have even been an occasional cause for unbelieving people to say, “If that’s the kind of people you are, I don’t want anything to do with your Christian faith.” We have all sadly failed, on one occasion or another, to be the good ambassadors of our Lord that we should be. But thankfully, our failure to consistently live like what we are doesn’t change the fact that we, nevertheless, are our Lord’s representatives on this earth. The church, in spite of its failures, still holds the dignified position Peter says that it holds in verses 9-10; “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people …”
And with that in mind, note also that Peter doesn’t ‘command’ or ‘threaten’ ‘order’ his readers to do what is right. Instead, he appeals to them with the words, “I beg you …” Consistent with their dignified nature as a holy people, Peter makes a dignified appeal to them to live holy lives in this fallen world.
Note then that, in a gentle and loving manner, Peter begins by reminding us as his believing brethren …
1. WHAT WE ARE (v. 11a).
He writes, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims …” Those two words are translated differently in various versions of the Scripture. The NIV, for example, translates them “aliens and strangers”; and the ESV has them “sojourners and exiles”. But in spite of the differences, one thing seems very clear: both words are meant to stress that this world is not our home. We are a people who have our permanent residence elsewhere, and we’re just passing through on our way to that better kingdom. As the apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 3:20, “our citizenship is in heaven …” We have, as it were, a dual-citizenship—being citizens for only a short time of an earthly kingdom; but holding, at the same time, an everlasting citizenship in heaven.
And that’s where we ought to consider our true home to be. We are citizens of heaven while temporarily passing through on earth. We are to be like the great Old Testament heroes of faith that are described for us in Hebrews 11;
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13-16).
That’s how those victorious heroes of faith saw themselves. That was why they were willing to lay down their lives for their faith in God’s promises. And so, likewise, we are to consider ourselves sojourners and pilgrims; “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13:14). We look very much out of place whenever we try to live like the people of this world; because we really don’t belong in it.
May God help us to think of ourselves as He says we are—just sojourners and pilgrims on this earth who are in the service of a better King; and who are traveling on our way to a better kingdom!
And as sojourners and pilgrims, notice next …
2. WHAT WE ARE TO DO (vv. 11b-12a).
Because we are not of this world, Peter urges us to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul …” The people of this world do not abstain from fleshly lusts; but rather give themselves over to them in order to gratify them and to be led by them.
When Peter speaks of things that are “fleshly”, he’s not talking about the sort of normal, every-day things that we make use of in life. Rather, he is speaking of things that are contrary to God’s expressed will for our lives. Paul spoke of “fleshly lusts” in Romans 7; when he said,
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members (Romans 7:22-23).
Paul taught that there is a principle at work in us—a principle that comes from our fallenness in Adam—that is called “fleshly” or “carnal”. It fights against God’s good will for us. “Because”, as Paul wrote later, “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). For the people of this world, the “flesh” is the guiding principle of what is to be considered “right” or “wrong”. But as sojourners and pilgrims on this earth, we’re not to live as the people of this earth live do.
And this is because those fleshly lusts, in actual fact, wage war against our souls. The people of this world think that fulfillment and happiness is found in gratifying those fleshly lusts and passions. But in reality, those passions wage an ongoing war against the soul in that they will keep someone who is ensnared by them from being able to enter the true, eternal, lasting kingdom of which we are citizens. In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul warns us that—as citizens of a heavenly kingdom—we must keep ourselves from such practices and have no part in them; saying,
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them (Ephesians 5:5-7; see also 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21).
We are citizens of a kingdom that is glorious, and rich, and beautiful, and dignified, and holy. But we’re also sojourners and pilgrims who are traveling through a land that is fallen, and sinful, and poor, and ugly, and rebellious, and often dishonorable. And we are to keep ourselves distinct and separate from the wicked practices of this land through which we’re passing—not out of pride or out of an inflated sense of our own worth, but rather out of humble recognition of who it is that God has graciously made us to be and of whose kingdom we actually belong.
But note also that we don’t do this as hermits who physically separate themselves from the people of this world. It is true that we’re to live distinct and separate lives—but we’re to take that ‘distinction’ and ‘separateness’ with us out into this world in such a way as that it can be seen in an up-close and relational way. The apostle Peter next goes on to say that we’re to live as holy ‘sojourners and pilgrims’; “having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles” so that the distinctiveness of our lives can be seen and the gospel we preach can be well-thought-of. In Titus 2, the apostle Paul wrote to Pastor Titus and said;
But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things (Titus 2:1-10).
And finally, notice that Peter tells us …
3. WHY WE ARE TO DO THIS (v. 12b).
Amazingly, we’re to live lives of distinction on this earth in order to invite others to trust in Jesus and become sojourners and pilgrims along with us! Peter wrote that we’re to do all this before the people of this fallen world; “that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
As sojourners and pilgrims, we’re to recognize that we will be carefully watched. But we should welcome this; because we have been deliberately left for a time on this earth in order to be observed. If we truly have the life of Christ in us, then such a life cannot be hidden; and if we faithfully live for Him, we will be spoken against because of it. But we should remember what the Lord Jesus said about that. In His Sermon on The Mount, in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, He said;
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16).
We’re to live lives under surveillance by this world because of ‘the day of visitation’. This day that Peter wrote speaks of our Lord’s return and of the judgment that is to follow. But it speaks of more than just that alone. It also speaks of the invitation of God’s grace toward unbelieving people to repent of sin—to realize that the things that they speak against God’s people are not true—to believe on Jesus Christ themselves, to have their sins washed away, and glorify Him on the day of His return!
In other words, we—as faithful sojourners and pilgrims—are being watched by design; because we are what God uses to point the people of this world to Himself!
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Dear brothers and sisters; we are sojourners and pilgrims in this world. We’re just traveling through on our way to a better kingdom! But more; we’re inviting others to join us! Let’s make sure that we live such lives of holy distinction in this world that others from this world see the difference—and desire to follow Him as well!
EA
