Thursday, September 7, 2006, Part 2

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:13-16). 

IDEA: Christians have related to their society as strangers and aliens by separating themselves from it.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that if they are citizens of heaven, then they must live out their lives as inhabitants of some culture or country on earth.

Do you hear much about "worldliness" these days?

Did you hear much about it when you were growing up?

I. The Bible warns us about worldliness.

1 John 2:15-17 says, "Love not the world," etc.

Jesus said that we are in the world, but we are not to be of the world.

What do you think the Bible means by "the world"?

II. One major metaphor that the Bible uses for Christians living in the society is that we are "strangers and aliens" or pilgrims. 

What do you think that metaphor is saying?

Stanley Hauerwas calls us "resident aliens."

The Bible is clear that we are to be separate from the world, but how we understand that command will have a lot to do with how we live our lives.

There are different kinds of separation.

We can have separation by isolation. This would be like people living in the United States but whose allegiance is to another country so that they have nothing much to do with American society.

We can have separation by distinction. We are a part of the society and we contribute to it. But we have a firm allegiance to the kingdom of heaven.