Exiles Among Pagans | 4/6/25
14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. —John 17:14–16 (NIV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! —2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. —Matthew 10:16 (NIV)
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” —Jeremiah 29:4–7 (NIV)
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 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. —1 Peter 2:11–12 (NIV)
BIG IDEA: AS EXILES, WE ARE CHALLENGED TO LIVE GOOD LIVES AMONG THE PAGANS
THOUGHT 1: VIEW YOUR DAYS ON EARTH LIKE A
15 We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. —1 Chronicles 29:15 (NIV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. —John 10:10 (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! —Philippians 2:3–8 (NIV)
1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. —1 Timothy 2:1–4 (NIV)
THOUGHT 2: LIVE OUT YOUR TIME AS EXILES WITH
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. —1 Peter 1:17 (NIV)
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. —Ephesians 2:19–22 (NIV)
“While Christians today may not have the same sense of imminent urgency that Paul did, we have certainly lived in the time between the times ever since Jesus’ ascension, straddling God’s already-inaugurated kingdom and God’s not-yet-fulfilled kingdom. What are God’s people to do in the interim? Well, they seek to embody imperfectly in the present what we expect God to bring about perfectly in the future.” —Households of Faith, p. 72
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, —Philippians 3:20 (NIV)
ACTION POINT: LIVE GOOD LIVES AMONG THE PAGANS
