Strangers

Foreigner: A person belonging to or owning allegiance to a foreign country*

Exile: A person who is… absent from home or country*

Stranger: Anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found*

One of my favorite Puritan writers, Matthew Henry, introduces his commentary on 1 Peter with these words: “This epistle is addressed to believers in general, who are strangers in every city or country where they live, and are scattered through the nations. These are to ascribe their salvation to the electing love of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost; and so to give glory to one God in three Persons, into whose name they had been baptized.”

Although the Christians Peter was writing to had been physically exiled, dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, they were no more foreign to their environment than believers of today are meant to be.

Jesus said to His followers, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). He also wrote to the Galatians, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

So as a child of God, elected by the Father and cleansed by the Son and sanctified by the Spirit, I am a stranger in a strange land. I am an outsider in a place where it would be easy to glide along comfortably, without struggling against sin and apathy, or fighting for joy. How easy it is to numb myself along with the rest of my culture, accepting its evil and banality with hardly the flicker of an eyelash.

But then I am reminded of what exactly it means to be a foreigner – I belong to another country; I owe my allegiance to a different King. And what it means to be in exile – I am absent from my home. And what it means to be a stranger – I don’t belong in the environment I find myself in. No wonder I find myself homesick and an occasional outcast – should I expect anything less?

The crazy, complicated aspect of this strangeness is that I’m not called to leave the foreign land yet. Though I do not belong to the world, I do live in it for now (John 17:15) - and more than that, I am an ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20) with a message from my King. He hasn’t left me to navigate this tricky landscape on my own – He’s promised that He is with me always (Matthew 28:20).

I’m a stranger, yes. A foreigner, absolutely. But I’m not homeless, and I’m not alone.