1 Peter 2:11 - Home

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”

When I lived in Houston, I would occasionally go to estate sales. Not the most thrilling way to spend a Saturday morning I admit, but I had a brand new house with almost no furniture, and you can get good deals at estate sales. One Saturday I was wandering through a sale at a private residence. As I entered the kitchen, I discovered several collections: plates, figurines, and trinkets from around the world.

The previous owner of the house had obviously spent years, time, and tons of money collecting these treasures. But now they were piled on the kitchen table stamped with pitifully low prices on little round stickers. As I meandered through the rest of the house, I began thinking about the temporary nature of life. A couple of weeks prior, the lady of the house was walking the same path I was walking, but now she was gone forever and her prized possessions were picked over by strangers. It was a sad thought.

When the lady died, she left this temporary life and moved into her eternal home. That’s the way it is for humanity, we are aliens; we live in a land that is not our home. As Christians, our home is with God in heaven, not here on earth. (If you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, your eternal home is elsewhere…) The house where you grew up, your hometown, your apartment, your dream house – they are not your home. They are temporary living quarters, every bit as transitory as a bus stop.

Likewise, the things that are important on this earth should not be terribly important to Christians. You and I were made for eternity and EVERYTHING of the world – power, popularity, possessions – is temporary. Either they will go away, or we will pass away and leave them behind. Until we can turn our back on worldly desires, we will be double-minded and of little use in God’s Kingdom. Matthew 6:24 comes to mind, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other…you cannot serve both God and Money”.

We must abstain from sinful, or fleshly, desires because they war against our soul. The soul is the residence of our spirit which is also the residence of the Holy Spirit. When we give in to sinful desires (Check out Galatians 5:16-21 to see what kind of sinful desires are on the table), we hurt our spirit and we hinder the Spirit of God from working in our lives and through our lives.

This is a hard teaching, but if obeyed, it will open the door to unbelievable peace and freedom. A couple of things to consider: are you spending time, money, and energy collecting earthly trinkets at the expense of eternal matters? Do you care what the world says more than you care what God says? Is the track of your life based on worldly expectations or God’s expectations? These are important questions…

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:20