The following was written by my friend Joanne Beckley. She and her husband have been living in South Africa for years teaching the people there about God. Her good attitude and her willingness to share herself with the people they teach as well as those of us back home is an inspiration to me. I hope this piece will cause you to stop and think like it did me. DID
Are We Lights Shining In Babylon?
I’ve written the following, prompted by my own need to be encouraged away from my comfort zone. I prayerfully hope it will encourage you also. J Beckley
When my husband and I made the choice to live in Africa, a foreign land, I knew I would become a foreigner, a stranger. But I didn’t understand at the time that 30 years later I still would never be “one of them”. I am indeed a resident alien. My dress, my behaviour, my language, my way of thinking, my very attitude toward the differences I see about me will always set me apart. My understanding of the apostle Peter’s description of an alien continues to becomes clearer and clearer the longer I remain in Africa. But, oh, how at times I long to belong!
When Judah was taken into captivity they became aliens and strangers in Babylon for 70 years. In the first letter of Peter, the apostle makes an analogy of the this event in comparison to how Christians are to live. We too live in Babylon, the world, as strangers, pilgrims– aliens, 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11-12; 5:13.
The early Christians became a scattered people who live under very different circumstances throughout the known world. They were not forced to be scattered, but chose to follow Jesus and took on the status of aliens. Think of the meaning of these three words, strangers, pilgrims, and aliens. Truly, the day we become Christians we begin living as strangers in the world where previously we had belonged. Our home is now a strange environment, one we will never be comfortable in again while we await going home.
Peter uses the Old Testament event in Genesis 17:8; 23:4 to help describe what it truly means to be a stranger, sojourner, foreigner. When Sarah died, Abraham suddenly needed a place to bury her. He was not a native of the land but he had lived in the land a long time. He had never invested in the land and never saw it as home. In Hebrews 11 it is said he viewed his lifetime sojourn as just a short time. Our attitude should be the same for truly this world is not our home.
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Jesus said, “You are in the world but you are not of the world.” Heaven is our native country and we are only temporary sojourners here on earth. The Hebrew word for a sojourner is one who settles only for a time, just long enough to transact a business matter, a guest dwelling in the country. He was called a transient foreigner, and therefore not taxed. This foreigner has a strong sense of alienation and he is not seeking acceptance and refuge. This is emphasized when we read the prophecies of Jeremiah urging the captives to build, live a normal life, for they were going to be in Babylon for 70 years, but knowing they will be going home. A lifetime never to be accepted, an alien. (Jeremiah 29)
So, I ask each one of us: Are we as Christians truly viewing ourselves alien, living in a foreign land called Babylon, never “fitting in”, biding our time until we can go home? Or perhaps are we guilty of living on the outside wistfully “looking in”? The United States we call home is not our home! No? Consider the amount of time and efforts you spend agonizing over politics and the state of the nation that is seemingly galloping through changes before our very eyes. Compare this to the time and effort you spend in trying to save the very souls of those who are galloping their way to hell. Where is our salt? Our light? Is our longing to preserve this world so strong that it is in actuality blinding us to our original aim and desire to reach toward our spiritual home? Surely we are not making ourselves at home, wanting so much to belong, to have a place with those around us, to create a nest of comfort, that we actually do not really want to go home? Philippians 3:20; Luke 24:18.
And then there is the matter of materialism, that enticing visitor at our door, always knocking insistently that we open our door yet wider…and wider. Ahhh, but we say, we are not ones to long for things the world longs for, nor do we desire the best of whatever is available to enjoy. Right. Let us consider. What about the “nest” we have created of our house? Do the sums. Add up the time, the money, the effort to please self and our families in comparison to the time, the money, the effort we place in reaching outward as a light. We also must be careful of not having what is called a “ghetto mentality”. That is, isolating our thoughts, our desires, our actions only for ourselves, spending most of our time with others like ourselves.
This is not what following Jesus wants from us. Christ has sent us out to shine the gospel, to act as a preservative in saving souls, to demonstrate a strong desire for a better home. We must ask ourselves, have the comforts we have created here become so great that our light has dimmed and we are no longer shining as a light in the darkness? No longer acting as salt to the world to preserve mankind? Is my desire for personal comfort in this world erasing my claim to be a servant of the most high God? Where is the salt? Where is the light?
Let us go back and take the time to reread the book of first Peter. Notice the theme and the way he divided his thoughts, always urging us to rejoice in being an alien in a foreign land awaiting our true home in heaven. Read again Hebrews 11, paying particular attention to verses 32 onwards. Did you notice how the women suffered? Are we suffering for Christ? Or are we busy making sure we are no different from those around us so as to avoid suffering? Haven’t we, in fact, “taken our ease in Zion”? Are we living as aliens, strangers in the dark world of Babylon that cries for light?
Outline of 1 Peter by Melvin Curry: Theme: 1:10; 5:12 No matter where we are scattered it is God’s choice as to where we are. 1:3-2:10 mercy 2:11-17 evil of you as of evil doers 3:18-4:6 flesh-spirit 4:7-17 end – judgment 5:1-10 suffering-glory
I certainly think we are aliens and we don’t own anything .. It all belongs to God and not to think we need anything material.. That we are ready to give it up to teach and follow God.