The temptation to blend in with the wider community (instead of being obvious sojourners and exiles
) is part of the spiritual warfare the devil would wage (with the help of our flesh) to destroy our souls. As returning a born
person to the womb would kill the newborn, so insisting on living as though not born again
(i.e., not as a sojourner or exile) will kill your soul.
Directly after the fall into sin, the Lord had made a distinction between offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent, a distinction marked by enmity
(Genesis 3:15). The concept of being sojourners and exiles
is rooted in this God-ordained hostility. In the history of doctrine, this enmity is known as the Antithesis. It’s fueled by the serpent’s (Satan’s) hatred for God and for God’s declaration of triumph over the serpent (Gen. 3:15: He shall bruise your head
) and augmented by the victory of the woman’s Seed on the cross (Colossians 2:15; Revelation 12:9). Today’s celebration of pluralism is fundamentally a denial of this enmity.
11 Bien-aimés, je vous exhorte, comme étrangers et voyageurs sur la terre, à vous abstenir des convoitises charnelles qui font la guerre à l'âme.