Strangers To God!
"Therefore remember...that at that time you
were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of
promise, having no hope
and without God in the world."
Ephesians 2: 11-12
After
Israelites settled in the Promised Land of
Canaan, there were “aliens” (Gentiles; non-Jews)
there. When Solomon was building the temple in
Jerusalem, he took a census of “aliens” in Israel
to recruit them to work on the temple. The total
was 153,600 (2 Chronicles 2:17).
Paul, addressing Gentile believers in Ephesus,
described what it meant to be aliens from God:
not part of “the commonwealth of Israel,”
and
“strangers from the covenants of promise,” with
no hope and “without God in the world.”
In other words, a bleak and hopeless life.
That was the status of Gentiles in the Old
Testament, in the New Testament,
and
still today. “Without Christ,”
Paul wrote, we were estranged from God.
But with Christ, in whom all the promises
of God are fulfilled (2 Corinthians 1:20), we
have been “brought near” (Ephesians
2:13).
If you know someone who is a stranger
to God, then ask God to use you to bring
them near to Him.
"We are strangers here.
Don’t make yourself
at
home."
Vance Havner
