Hebrews 11:8-10 (NET) 8 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
1 Peter 2:11 (NET) — “Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul.”
Notice why we are to shun “fleshly desires”: it is because we are “foreigners and exiles” on earth. This earth is not our home, so why indulge desires that are strictly tied to it?
By faith Abraham, who is our father in the life of faith, lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country. Why? “He was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” His faith in God informed him that God had far more in store for him than even the land God promised him. So he refused to put down roots into this earth’s soil, so to speak, and kept living in a tent.
Indulging “fleshly desires”, on the other hand, is all about what this world has to offer. We are attempting to put down roots into sand, into what is passing away. And as such it does battle against our souls. We end up feeling terribly conflicted because we were not made for a transitory world like this. “The world is passing away with all its desires,” writes the apostle John, “but the person who does the will of God remains forever.” 1 John 2:17 (NET)
So perhaps what we need to do is what Abraham did: live in a tent. That is to say, whenever our time-bound, fleshly desires, make their appeal we talk back to them. By the power of the Holy Spirit we say, “No. You have no place in my life because this sinking world is not my home. I’m looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
