by Vance Havner

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

A stranger does not feel at home where he is, and neither does a Christian in this world. He is not a citizen of earth trying to get to heaven but a citizen of heaven sojourning on earth. This world is “his passage, not his portion.”

We of the Heavenly Commonwealth do not feel at home here, we just “don’t belong.” We speak another language. When the cocktails are offered we refuse and when the dirty jokes are told we do not join the laughter, not because of a Pharasaic self-righteousness but simply because we are “strangers.” It is not always comfortable to be a “foreigner.” And they will think it strange if we don’t “make ourselves at home” (I Pt. 4:4), especially if we once took part with them.

The world will do its utmost to make us “one of the crowd.” Nothing is more insidious than the hospitality of this age. But, while we need not be discourteous, we must not be deceived.

by Vance Havner