Word of Salvation – Vol.40 No.03 – January 1995
Square Pegs In Round Holes
Sermon by Rev. J. De Boer on 1Peter 2:11-12
Scripture Readings: Hebrews 11:1-16, 1Peter 2:1-12
[Readers, if you are using this for a morning service, you may wish to use Col.3:1-17 or 3:1-4:1 as your reading following the confession of sin and assurance of pardon. This will be helpful as the sermon makes specific reference to this passage. Alternatively, you may wish to make it one of your Scripture readings, in place of 1Pet 2:1-12. Then simply read the text prior to beginning the sermon.]
[Read 1Peter 2:11-12]“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.
How often do you stop to think about this truth? Even though we live in the world, and have been placed here by the Lord Himself, we do not really belong here; we are “aliens and strangers”.
Do you understand what these terms mean? An “alien” is not a creature from another planet; it is a person who lives in a place which is not his real home. And a “stranger” is not someone you have to be careful about; it is a visitor who is staying for just a while.
That’s how the Bible describes you and pictures your life in this world. We are like Abraham in the Old Testament. As we read in Hebrew 11:9-10, He made “his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents… and was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and architect is God.”
By faith he knew that he was passing through on his way to a better place. And so are we. By faith we may know that we, too, are passing through this world, on our way to heaven. By God’s grace we are citizens there already, and one day we will know the fullness of that. In the meantime, however, we are “aliens and strangers in this world”. We don’t belong here. We are square pegs in round holes.
This does not mean that we despise the world. Nor that our lives here in this world are just a waste of time. It is God’s world. It reflects His own glory, and we can enjoy its beauty and all of its blessings. And our lives are worth something, because the Lord has given them to us. And we have the privilege of living to His glory as His witnesses in His world.
That is what our text is getting at: not just that there is an in-principle difference between the Church and the unbelieving world; between you as a Christian, and your non-Christian neighbour. But more particularly that this difference ought to show. Here we are URGED to live out our identity as the people of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two things are highlighted: what’s in our heart, and how we live. The point being that precisely because we are “aliens and strangers” in the world, we should strive for purity of heart and consistency of life. In the words of our text, we should “abstain from sinful desires” and live good lives. Let us consider each of these.
- PURITY OF HEART
We are to abstain – to keep away from – sinful desires. Please note that we are not speaking of those desires which are right and proper. It is not wrong to desire God, or friendship, or your marriage partner, or food or drink. Our text is speaking about those desires which are characteristic of the sinful life. Desires such as gluttony, lust and greed, which are twisted and sinful. Desires which are contrary to God’s commands. Desires which use and abuse other people and are only focussed on self.
Hard as it may be for us to face, our text points the finger at us, and tells us that these sinful desires are at work in OUR hearts. That is why it speaks here of the battle, the war, which is going on inside us.
I wonder how often you have thought of yourself in these terms. That you, as a Christian, are a walking civil war…! You need to understand that, because that’s what the Bible is teaching. And that helps to explain the tensions and frustrations that exist in our Christian lives. On the one hand there is the Holy Spirit who is moulding you into the image of Christ. On the other hand there is the old sinful nature, with its sinful desires, trying to get its own way. And often it does.
Think of King David. He wrongly desired Bathsheba, and fell into sin because of that. Think of yourself. Is there anyone here who has never had an immoral thought? Who has never harboured hatred or bitterness in their hearts? Who has never been selfish? These sinful desires are the exact opposite of all we stand for as the people of Christ. And to hold onto them, is to do ourselves terrible spiritual harm – not to mention the shame it brings to the Lord Jesus.
What, then, are we to do? We are to “abstain” from them. That means first of all that you have to identify the sinful desires in your own heart. You must be ruthlessly honest about your feelings and desires before God. With the Psalmist (Ps.139:23-24) you must seek the grace to say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Then you must keep away from them. You must make a conscious effort to resist these “sinful desires”; not to let them in. And if they are in, you need to work against them and put them to death.
How do you do that? You must depend on the grace of God. And you must seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. For it is the Holy Spirit who will remind you that you are an “alien and a stranger”. It is the Holy Spirit who will set your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on the things of this world. It is the Holy Spirit who will move you to be busy in prayer, and in the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit who will set your mind on the things above. He will enable you to have a Christian mindset so that you can train yourself to have the mind of Christ.
Is that so important? Yes. Because then you will be replacing wrong thinking and wrong thoughts with right thinking and right thoughts. You will be able to replace sinful desires with desires which honour God. You will be equipped to deal with such things as immoral thoughts, hatred, jealousy and selfishness.
You will be able to counsel yourself and say: “these sinful desires don’t belong in my life. They belong to the world of sin and unbelief over which the devil rules. But I don’t belong to that world any longer. By God’s grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I will fight them and put them to death.”
And when you are doing that, you are doing what our text is saying. But that is only the first part; there is more. Because we are “aliens and strangers,” we are also called to live model Christian lives. It says, “Live such good lives among the pagans… that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” And that brings us to our second point:
- CONSISTENT CHRISTIAN LIVES
Once again, we see that this is not a command that comes out of the blue. It is rooted in our relationship to Christ. It is based on the fact that we do not belong to this sinful world. By God’s grace we have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Now we are to live by the Spirit as citizens of His Kingdom.
What does that mean in practice? That we live in a way which is in keeping with our identity. We show in our lives that there IS a difference between ourselves and the unbeliever. Earlier, in our reading of Colossians 3, we saw some of the details of this. On the negative side, we are called to “put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (vs.5). On the positive side we are to be like Christ – compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient (vs.12ff). We are called to be forgiving, peaceful, loving and thankful people.
If you are a wife, you are called to submit to the loving leadership of your husband. If you are a husband, you are called to love your wife as Christ loved the Church. If you are a child, you are called to honour and obey your parents. If you are a father, you are called to be the father that God is to His children. If you work for a boss, you are called to work with all your heart, for you do it for the Lord. If you are an employer, you are called to be fair and just in all your dealings with your workers.
No doubt many of you have heard these things before. What is important here is that we do not lose sight of WHY we are to be this sort of people; and WHY we are to live this sort of life. Yes it is a matter of our identity. Anything else is a denial of the fact that we are “aliens and strangers” in the world. But there is another important reason: God can use this to build His Church.
In our text, it is our lifestyle that God uses to bring unbelievers to faith. Christ said it too, in Matthew 5:16; “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” People should be able to tell that we are different. It should come out in the way we speak; in our attitude to work; because we’re not interested in having a fling and cheating on our marriage; in the way we bring up our children; in the way we spend our weekends; and in many other ways. And it is that difference, which they can see, that becomes a first step in the process of their salvation.
Peter’s readers would have found this hard to take. At the time they were undergoing some fierce persecution, and they knew exactly what it was to be accused of doing wrong. Some would have been punished for it. Yet, even they were to live consistent Christian lives. For God had His people among the mocking, accusing pagans; and they would come to faith through the consistent witness of the Christians there.
That same truth applies to each and every one of us today. The term “lifestyle evangelism” hadn’t been coined yet, but that’s what Peter is getting at here. We sing that well known hymn, “Take my life and let it be, all you purpose Lord for me”. Our text would add the line: so that I can be a tool in your hand to bring others to you. Even those who mock me now. Have you stopped to think about this? Your unbelieving friend or workmate may never have been in Church or even attended Sunday School. They may never have read a Bible. But they know you and how you live. Do they know that you are different. Did you know that this could be an opportunity to speak with them about the hope you have in your heart? God may use your lifestyle to bring the Gospel of salvation to them.
And let me say: this is the need of the hour. We know that Christ is coming again. We know that He will judge the living and the dead. We know that our world is getting more rough and more ugly. We see the reality of that in our papers and on our TV screens. It is reflected in the crime rate, the divorce rate and the suicide rate.
Not only that, in our own country of Australia, we are living in times of great change. In his book “Reinventing Australia”, Hugh Mackay writes that in the last 20 years “…we have been plunged into a period of unprecedented social, cultural, political, economic and technological change in which the Australian way of life is being radically re-defined. Everything from the roles of women, through marriage and the family… to the racial and cultural composition of our society is being questioned.”
We are living in the midst of that in these last days before Jesus returns. We are living and working with people who are going through times of anxiety, stress and insecurity. It is a time of great opportunity for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as never before, we must live out the reality of who we are in Christ. So that under the blessing of God, unbelievers may come to know and confess Christ; and have the peace that He alone can give; and the security that comes from knowing that our times are in His hands. And then, they might look forward with us, to that great and terrible day when the Lord will return.
My brother, my sister, are you living a consistent Christian life? Have you seen that your life can be a tool in God’s hand to bring others to faith?
Congregation, may the Lord spur you on to truly be what our text says: an “alien and a stranger” in this world. You are a square peg in a round hole, passing through on your way to heaven where you really belong. May God give you the vision of Abraham, of Noah, of Paul, and of Jesus Christ. The vision of the men of faith, who knew their identity and lived it out. Each day, stop and remember who you are as a follower of the Lord Jesus. And may His Holy Spirit strengthen you, to “abstain from sinful desires.” And “to live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
Amen.