What do you call a person that travels a lot and never gets angry?

 

A nomad!

 

   Now, when one is traveling as a stranger, in an area you're unfamiliar with, it is easy to get upset and lost when your not on the right road, and Saint Peter in today's Epistle is trying to keep the Christians to whom he was writing on the right road. The right path to heaven.

 

I Peter 2:11 “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

 

   In this Epistle, Saint Peter addresses those to whom he was writing in a rather peculiar manner. He calls them “strangers and pilgrims”.

 

  I'd like us today to briefly consider his use of these names, because of the aspect of Christian life they portray and the type of Christian conduct they require of us.

 

   To begin with, Christians are strangers and pilgrims in the sense that; Strangers are foreigners that really belong to a country other than the one they are passing through at the moment.

 

  Christians, through faith in Jesus Christ, have become the “Children of God” and as such their true homeland is that eternal city whose maker and builder is God.

 

  The Christian's true citizenship is in heaven.

 

  Our citizenship there was purchased by our Redeemer's death on the cross for our sins.

 

  We need to remember that the world in which we now live is only a temporary stopping place in a foreign land on the road to the Father's house. We who, by the grace of God have been brought to faith in our Savior Christ, need to always remember that we are children of the King and, while we are in the world, we should not be of the world.

 

   These names that Peter uses, “Strangers and Pilgrims”, should remind us of the conduct required of us as Christians.

 

  Strangers in a strange land need to be very cautious or they might be taken advantage of and have their possessions stolen. Christians must be on guard lest someone or something cause them to lose their heavenly citizenship.

 

  Peter warns us to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” We know that the world is full of dangers to our soul's health and we need to constantly be asking for God's help in this regard, as well as for help to have us do good works to His glory.

 

   Being called pilgrims should remind us too, that as pilgrims must travel over rough roads as well as smooth on their journey, we too will face hardships as we travel through our lives here on earth.

 

  We will have sunshine, but also storms during our time here.

 

  Remembering the example of Jesus we will need to press on however, because that heavenly goal, “our true native land” with our Heavenly Father, is worth any of the hardships we may have to endure on our pilgrimage to it.

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