Believers: Strangers to Lust

“Strangers and pilgrims,” titles that Peter used of believers (1 Peter 2:11), have a lengthy or deep background. In the Old Testament, the stranger was a foreigner, so someone with a different, contrasting set of beliefs and culture from God’s people. Peter reverses this concept, calling the believer the stranger in the world. He’s not at home here, similar to what a pilgrim is. The pilgrim is traveling someplace he does not belong to somewhere he does. He does not belong in his place of travel, because he does belong to his destination. Stranger and pilgrim speak of divergence, dissimilarity, and incompatibility.

People in general so much want to be the same and fit in, but true believers, which is the only real belief, do not do that. They are dissimilar to, diverge with, and are incompatible with the who the world is and what the world does. Chief in the description of the opposite culture is “fleshly lust” (Galatians 5:16-17) or “worldly lust” (Titus 2:11-12), also translated “inordinate affection” in Colossians 3:5. Peter commanded, “Abstain from fleshly lust,” Paul commanded “make no provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14), and also commanded, “Mortify it” or “put it to death.” If the Bible, God’s Word, has a mainstream, this is in the mainstream of the message of it.

You made a choice. You chose God. Lust will battle that and so you must siphon that away, not be under its power. Let it go. It will not help. If you are going to choose that, then that’s your choice. John actually puts it diametrically opposed to genuine Christianity when he writes in 1 John 2:16, “it is not of the Father, but of the world.” In the previous verse, he says that he who loves that, the love of the Father is not in Him. He’s not saved. It shouldn’t be and won’t be a problem for a true church leader to look for separation from this lust. Those with him will welcome that leadership.