1 Peter 2:11

‘Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and temporary residents, to abstain (or more literally ‘to continue to hold yourself back') from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul,'

We will remember that Peter began his letter (1 Peter 1:1) by describing God's people as sojourners in the world, (those who had no permanent, settled home). Now having demonstrated their heavenly begetting in terms of the resurrection to eternal life (1 Peter 1:3), their positions as living stones in the Temple of God (1 Peter 2:5), and their uniqueness as God's chosen people (1 Peter 2:9), Peter continues to emphasise their other-worldliness (note also 1 Peter 1:13).

They are to recognise that they have here no permanent home, because as those who have been begotten by God and brought into His purposes they are travelling on towards an eternal home. Their inheritance is not here but in Heaven. For that reason they are not to allow themselves to be tempted to follow the course of this world (compare Ephesians 2:1; 1 John 2:15). Indeed they are to continue to hold themselves back from following all human whims and ways, because these will prevent their eyes and hearts being set on the highest good, and will be at variance with their heavenly calling. Such things are continually at war (present tense) against their inner purpose to serve and obey God.

For such an idea as this we can compare Paul's declaration that our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20). But the great demonstration of it is found in the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 11 where the writer brings out that all who truly follow God will keep themselves from being entangled with the affairs of this world because their eyes are fixed on what is heavenly. And indeed that they will necessarily have to do so because the world will often persecute them and drive them out.

Hebrews also brings out the fact that Abraham was the archetypal sojourner. He left the temptations of his old life behind and at the command of God became a sojourner and wanderer in the land in which a future was promised for his seed, a land over which he had no ownership, apart, significantly, for ownership over a place in which to bury his dead (Genesis 12:10; Genesis 17:8; Genesis 20:1; Genesis 21:23; Genesis 21:34; Genesis 23:4). And the same was true of his son Isaac (Genesis 26:3) and then of Jacob (Genesis 28:4; Genesis 32:4), and then of Jacob's sons (consider Hebrews 11:13). And the essential reason for this was because their eyes were fixed on God, They sought a city whose builder and maker was God. They sought not an earthly country but a heavenly (Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 11:16). They were not expecting to ‘inherit the land' in this earth but in the earth which was to come.

Similarly Israel as a nation sojourned in Egypt (Genesis 47:7; Deuteronomy 26:5), and their great deliverer also had his mind, not on the treasures of Egypt, but on the eternal reward. All this is also drawn to our attention by Stephen in Acts 7, although with a different emphasis. It was clearly something very much in the minds of the early church, and seen as a pattern to be followed.

And even when God delivered the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt and brought them into the land of promise, the Scripture tells us that they were still to be seen as ‘sojourners' in God's land (Leviticus 25:23; 1 Chronicles 29:15). The land was never to be seen as theirs. For this was to be the destiny of the true people of God. God was showing them that they must hold lightly to this world. The letter to the Hebrews tells us why. It was because they were to seek a better country, that is, a heavenly (Hebrews 10:16). And this situation continued throughout the centuries, for of those who settled in the land many of the faithful became displaced outcasts for their faith (Hebrews 11:37). Only the idea of future resurrection could make sense of it all (Hebrews 11:35). It was the lot of God's faithful ones to be unwanted. And now, says Peter, the situation is the same today. You too are sojourners and foreigners in the world. You too are unwanted. For that is the lot of those who truly follow God. There will be no permanent place for them in this world.

They are therefore to live in this world, but not be of it and are to abstain from all the desires to which men are prone. In Peter ‘fleshly' simply means ‘human, of the flesh' as opposed to ‘of the spirit' (compare 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:6). Thus ‘fleshly desires' here is not referring simply to ‘sinful' desires. Rather, while including them, it covers the whole range of human motivation (see 1 John 2:15). It means abstaining from any thought of putting this world first. To consider following in the world's ways is to cause havoc in the inner heart. Their hearts must rather be set continually on obedience to the ways of God, with their eyes fixed on Heaven.

‘Beloved.' He has previously exhorted them to love one another with a pure heart fervently (1 Peter 1:22). Now he wants them to know that he loves them in the same way, and that that is why he speaks so strongly. Compare also 1Pe 4:12; 2 Peter 3:1. For they are all one together in Christ Jesus and grounded in His love (Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 3:17).

‘Sojourners and temporary residents.' For ‘sojourners' see 1 Peter 1:1. They are now of a different nation than their fellow countrymen. They therefore no longer have the same interests. Similarly by ‘temporary residents' (which is little different from sojourners) he is emphasising the fact of their not belonging and the temporary nature of their time here. The combination doubly emphasises their position.