Jump Start # 118

1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

  Peter here identifies both our relationship with the world and the present condition of things. This is good to know. We forget. We think things aren’t all that bad. They are. First, Peter tells the brethren that they are “aliens and strangers.” They are not residents. This world is not our home. We don’t fit in. We are traveling upstream in a downstream world. Don’t think of space creatures when you see the world “alien.” That thought would have never crossed Peter’s mind. An alien was a foreigner. Most of Peter’s world understood that. The Romans had conquered the world. They were a part of the “empire” but they didn’t want to be. Their national identities had been merged in with the Romans. Many uprising took place to gain independence. Peter borrows this concept to define the relationship the righteous have with the world. We don’t fit in. It’s as if we are overseas visiting a new land. Things are different. This isn’t home.

  When the church and more so individual families and brethren try to blend in with the world and soften the lines of distinction, tragedy results. The thinking of the world is different than the righteous. How the world defines success is different than how God does. What the world is after and what drives the world is so different than the righteous. It is indeed as if we are “strangers” in this world. Peter said earlier in this chapter that God had called “you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (2:9). We are different. In words, in attitudes, in motivation, in love, in dress, in music, in thinking and in behavior.

  The second thing we notice here is the effect “fleshly lusts” has upon our soul—it is a war. War is never pretty. Some of us guys like war movies, but in the end, it is a movie. In recent times there have been some movies done about World War II. The movies were violent and bloody. They tried to show what it was like. My Dad was there. He didn’t like the movies. He said it wasn’t like it at all. War is dangerous. War is costly. War kills. Fleshly lusts war against our soul. Do we get it? Lust of the eyes, lusts of the flesh and the pride of life as John would write are some of the areas that come to our mind. There is an appeal because they are “fleshly” but it is forbidden fruit. The price you pay is your soul. Remember the words of Jesus, “what will you give in exchange for your soul? What if you inherit the entire world and lose your soul…”

 Temptation is not a gentle walk through the park, it is a treacherous, dangerous journey in which you may not come out alive. Peter’s words are a warning. Don’t play with fire, you’ll get burned.

  Peter’s solution to this dilemma is one word: Abstain. Abstain from fleshy lusts. Do not participate. Sit this one out. Go the other way. It is war. It’s nasty, costly and you’ll likely get hurt. Abstain because God wants you to. Abstain because you are the captain of your soul. It means not doing what the world is doing. While they are laughing at the immoral, inhaling the sinful, becoming drunk on the wrong, the righteous abstain. They refuse to get involved.

  Do you feel like you don’t fit in sometimes? Actually, that is a good thing. We need to be concerned when we don’t sense that. Good words for dangerous times.

Roger