1 Peter Chapter 2, Verse 11
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11: αγαπητοι παρακαλω ως παροικους και παρεπιδημους απεχεσθαι των σαρκικων επιθυμιων αιτινες στρατευονται κατα της ψυχης
11: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
11: Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to
refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul,
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. On the word rendered strangers, (paroikouv,) see "Eph 2:19, where it is rendered foreigners. It means, properly, one dwelling near, neighbouring; then a by-dweller, a sojourner, one without the rights of citizenship, as distinguished from a citizen; and it means here that Christians are not properly citizens of this world, but that their citizenship is in heaven, and that they are here mere sojourners. see "Phil 3:20".
For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven." On the word rendered pilgrims, (parepidhmouv,) see "1 Pet 1:1"; see "Heb 11:13".
A pilgrim, properly, is one who travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to some holy object; then a traveller, a wanderer. The meaning here is, that Christians have no permanent home on earth; their citizenship is not here; they are mere sojourners, and they are passing on to their eternal home in the heavens. They should, therefore, act as become such persons; as sojourners and travellers do.
Abstain from freshly lusts. Such desires and passions as the carnal appetites prompt to. see "Gal 5:19, seq., a sojourner in a land, or a pilgrim, does not give himself up to the indulgence of sensual appetites, or to the soft pleasures of the soul. All these would hinder his progress, and turn him off from his great design. Comp. Rom 13:4, Gal 5:24 2 Tim 2:22 Tit 2:12 1 Pet 1:14.
Which war against the soul. see "Rom 8:12, see "Rom 8:13".
The meaning is, that indulgence in these things makes war against the nobler faculties of the soul; against the conscience, the understanding, the memory, the judgment, the exercise of a pure imagination. Comp. Gal 5:17. There is not a faculty of the mind, however brilliant in itself, which will not be ultimately ruined by indulgence in the carnal propensities of our nature. The effect of intemperance on the noble faculties of the soul is well known; and alas, there are too many instances in which the light of genius, in those endowed with splendid gifts, at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the senate, is extinguished by it, to need a particular description. But there is one vice pre-eminently, which prevails all over the heathen world, (Comp. see "Rom 1:27, seq.) and extensively in Christian lands, which more than all others, blunts the moral sense, pollutes the memory, defiles the imagination, hardens the heart, and sends a withering influence through all the faculties of the soul.
