1 Peter 2:11–12 (CEB)
11 Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives. 12 Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your honorable deeds.
I am not a citizen of this world. Not even of this country. In Christ, I am on a temporary visa. Peter is writing in the Roman world. A Roman citizen reading Peter’s words would think he’s crazy. Who would want to give up Roman citizenship?!?
Who would want to give up American citizenship? Are you crazy?
But that is our call. It is not to be proud. It is to live humbly. It is to live honorably. We are here representing our true homeland. The Kingdom of God isn’t like this world. It’s certainly not like the society in which we currently dwell in the U.S.!
I am to be reminded daily that my deepest allegiance is not to the United States. It is not to any entity in this world. It is to the Kingdom of God. It is to represent that Kingdom well in this temporary place.
My deepest loyalties lie not with this nation of my birth. They do not lie with any nation or system of this world. My task is to crave the goodness of the Kingdom of God, dwell in that goodness, and exude that goodness in my life to the world around me.
I am in need of constant reminding: I am on temporary visa in this world.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 