Strangers in this age

Peter reminds us that, if we call upon as Father the One who judges impartially, we must live in fear during our pilgrimage. The Christian life is not a comfortable settlement in this world; it is a conscious walk before God. Being a pilgrim is not despising the present life — it is recognizing that we have been born again from a life that is not of this world. Our origin has changed: the spirit has been regenerated by the divine life, and where there is new life there is a natural separation from what is old.

The outer man seeks belonging easily. He wants to be accepted, not to seem strange, not to disturb. This pressure is real and constant — the course of this world is not only external; it resonates in the habits, desires, and fears of the untreated soul. The difference Christ produces in us does not arise from the outer man's effort to appear separate; it arises from the regenerated spirit that already belongs to another Kingdom and no longer finds its center in the things of this age.

The fear of God frees us from the fear of men. When the spirit is turned toward the Father, the need for acceptance loses its governance over the soul. The pilgrimage is not a performance of strangeness; it is the divine life in us creating, naturally, a difference that the world perceives without our needing to announce it.