This World is not my Home
1 Peter 2:11-17 (NIV) 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Only two generations ago many people lived in the same area most of their lives. Some lived in homes passed down from family to family. It was not uncommon for a family to have just one car. But things have changed.
The more mobile our society has become, the more families are spread out. The places we find ourselves may not feel like home, yet in order to be productive and fulfilled we are expected to fit in to the culture. Even in Peter’s time, Christians felt like foreigners in a foreign land. The saying supposedly originated in 383 AD with Bishop Ambrose advising St. Augustine regarding fasting that “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
In much of history, however, many of the problems arose with the people of Israel becoming assimilated into foreign cultures. Being holy as God is holy means to be set apart. Instead, intermarriage led to worshipping foreign gods, which then led to eating forbidden foods and taking part in ceremonies that defiled the One, True God.
Peter recognized the dilemma, and his advice was essentially as Jesus said: render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. But by no means use the freedom we have in Christ to do evil.
We should each understand that everything we do is a reflection of Jesus Christ. May we purpose to help others and glorify God every day or our lives.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Seeking Holiness 