The War for Our Souls - Pt 4

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV).

The roots of the Texas Longhorn go back to the late 1400s. Cattle were not indigenous to North America, but were introduced by gold-seeking Spanish conquistadors. The first Spanish explorers turned their dark, thin-legged, wiry Moorish-Andalusian cattle loose on the Caribbean Islands. These Andalusians, known as ‘black cattle,’ also produced Spanish fighting bulls. Left on their own, the cattle strayed, grew larger and soon turned wild. In the wild they thrived, growing heavy-boned, skinny and swift. Their long legs and long horns provided offensive weapons and defensive protection. They also developed a fiery temper and a malicious cleverness. In celebration of this uniquely “Texas breed” of cattle, cowboys still drive a small herd of longhorns through the downtown streets of the Fort Worth Stockyard daily. The truth is that the Longhorn is really more of an alien species to our state. Peter has mentioned twice already (cf. 1:1 and 1:17) that true Christians are aliens, exiles, and strangers on the earth. He mentions it a third time in our reading today. Obviously it was of more than passing importance. I believe a part of that importance is rooted in the fact that we can restore the weightiness and importance of God in our world if we remember that we are aliens and exiles. Peter tells us the reason we are aliens: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession . . . he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (v. 9). We belong to God, not to the world. We are aliens because we are God's. We must cultivate the mindset of exiles. What this does mainly is wake us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers are helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God in his Word. When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world. One way to make God visible and weighty for the sake of our world is to see ourselves as exiles and refugees from heaven.