Father, You have kept this truth of keeping our hope on You alone before me. Of our life here on this earth being so transient.
1 Peter 1:3..caused us to be born again to a living hope….
1:13 Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
1:21..so that your faith and hope are in God
Peter addresses his first letter like this..."to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, etc…..who are chosen…" not only aliens in other countries, but also on this earth, as he later addresses them.
1 Peter 1:17 speaks of the brief time we live on this earth.
“…conduct yourselves in fear during this time of your stay upon earth;”
The word stay—paroikia--means
1. a dwelling near or with one
2. a sojourning, dwelling in a strange land
3. metaph. The life of a man here on earth is likened to a sojourn
In comparing various translations, the words sojourners, exiles, temporary, strangers, and foreigner is used in translating verse :17:
“Pass your time of sojourn here….” KJV
“Throughout the time of your exile….”ESV
“During this time of temporary residence….”CSB
“Live your life as strangers here…”NIV
“During your time as foreigners here…”NLT
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
An interesting thing, Father, is that before we became your children, we were aliens then also.
Eph 2:12 “ remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
Eph 2:19 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,…
So we were once aliens separate from God….but now we remain strangers and aliens, but of a different kind. We have been delivered out of the dark world that is separate from God and transferred into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. (Col 1:13)
However, in this Kingdom also, we are strangers and aliens while we remain briefly on this earth as it exists now. “For we have become fellow citizens with the Saints and belong to God’s household.”
This is the truth. Now we are aliens that are temporarily here and are to be looking and longing for our real home with our real Father, our Lord Jesus, and all the Saints that have gone before us. This truth will transform our lives if we allow it to.
1 Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.
: 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.
This is the reality as the Scriptures describe man…
"All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like
The flower of the field.
The grass withers
And the flower fades
But the Word of our God stands forever."
It seems to me Father, that if the reality of being here so briefly was seeded deep within my heart, it would change my relationships; for what now seems important to make my point or get my way, would lose its value in light of eternity. This opens the door to loving at all times.
The ability to fervently love one another from a clean heart impacts the world in a way that demonstrates we are born again and have a hope that the world does not have.
Thank You Father that by Your infinite grace, you will enable my hope to be fixed on You and You alone.
