¹¹Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. ¹²Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Peter’s writing here reflects what the apostle Paul wrote: “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice . . . to not be conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:1–2). Since we are those who have received God’s mercy, we immediately see ourselves as aliens and strangers in the world. Why? There is an infinite gulf between those who have received God’s mercy and those who haven’t. We operate on a different plane, with a different motivation, different foundation, different everything! We see ourselves not as those who are primarily part of the family of mankind but also happen to be believers in Christ. No! Our first identity is as Christians.

This puts us at odds with the world, which sees our common humanity as the unifying identity that makes us all one. We are no longer one with the human race as a whole; God has separated us from the mass of the fallen. It is true that all humans are created as God’s image bearers, and we all have His breath in us. But as those who have been redeemed, we have a new identity in Christ that eclipses our identity with the world; therefore Peter calls us aliens and strangers in the world, and that is what we are. Our spiritual passport no longer identifies us as citizens of the world but citizens of heaven.

Our identity in Christ does not come without its struggles. The old nature is still with us, so the lusts of the flesh still cause us problems. The old citizenship wants to reclaim what it thinks is its own. So we, as believers, must live up to the excellencies of God we proclaim (2 Peter 2:9). We do not want to find ourselves in the precarious position of proclaiming the excellencies of God but falling woefully short of displaying them in our lives. To be sure, none of us can live up to God’s absolute holiness and perfection, but the world can smell hypocrisy far away. We should not give the lost any reason to launch a legitimate charge against us.

Instead, we should live our lives in such a way that when Christ returns (here referred to as “the day of visitation”), unbelievers (referred to here as “Gentiles”) will admit to God’s greatness because of our way of life. In the end, God will indeed be glorified, even by those who persecute us.

Lord, when the world excludes me, I know You will be glorified through me in the end, when You return.