Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
11 As strangers, or sojourners. There are two parts to this exhortation, — that their souls were to be free within from wicked and vicious lusts; and also, that they were to live honestly among men, and by the example of a good life not only to confirm the godly, but also to gain over the unbelieving to God.
Observe here, 1. A dehortation, Abstain from fleshly lusts. Quest. What is here meant by lusts? Ans. Lust is either habitual or actual: habitual or original lust is the corruption and depravation of the faculties of the soul, an aversion to every thing that is good, and a proneness to all evil: actual lust is original sin put in motion: by fleshly lusts, understand in...
Verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. On the word rendered strangers, (παροικους,) , 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...