Sojourners & Exiles

Some Christians argue against cultural engagement by claiming that Christians are to live as sojourners and exiles on earth. The church, they say, has a pilgrim status, which means we should expect to suffer in this age, living as a prophetic minority in the world. “This world is not my home; I’m just a passing through,” as the hymn says.

This sounds plausible because the Bible does use the language of sojourners and exiles to describe the people of God in this world. But what does that actually mean for our lives? A biblical sojourners and exiles mindset means five things:

1. Heirs of the World

Abraham is the father of faith. His offspring are many, just as God promised, and include not those who share his physical blood, but those who share his faith (Rom 4:16, 9:8). Paul calls him “the father of us all.”

God made spectacular promises to Abraham, Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness. God promised to multiply his offspring (Gen 13:16, 15:5,17:2), to make Abraham into a great nation (Gen 12:2) and the father of many nations (Gen 17:4). God promised to bless the entire world through Abraham (Gen 12:2–3). God also promised to give land to Abraham and his offspring (Gen 12:7, 13:14–17). Paul summarizes God’s covenant promise to Abraham and offspring as the promise “that he would be heir of the world” (Rom 4:13).

With those promises came a command. “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1). The author of Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.” (Hebrews 11:8–9).

So Abraham lived as a sojourner or exile. He lived in the land that was promised to him and to his offspring, but he did not possess it. Abraham, the heir of the world, sojourned in a foreign land by faith. At one point God stated the promise this way: “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings … for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). Abraham left his homeland and wandered in a foreign country, living as a stranger and sojourner (Gen 12:1–9, 13:17–18, 17:8, 20:1, 21:34, 23:4), as did his sons (Gen 26:3, 28:4, 35:27, 37:1; Deut 26:5).

Referring to Abraham and other men of faith, Hebrews provides a summary statement: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

What does it mean to live as strangers and exiles on earth? It means to live by faith in God’s promise that we will inherit this world (Ps 37:9, 29; Dan 7:18; Matt 5:5; Rev 2:26–27). Consider the words of Isaac when he blessed Jacob: “May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” (Genesis 28:4). To be a sojourner meant living in the land of inheritance by faith, knowing that God had promised to give that land to their descendants, even if they didn’t see it in their day.

And the effect of that faith was courage, risk, sacrifice, and obedience. Living as sojourners and exiles did not mean retreating from the world with a defeatist mentality. They knew by faith that the land would be theirs, and so they went where God led, trusted what God promised, and obeyed what God commanded.

2. Doing Faithful Feats on Earth

Again, Hebrews 11:13 is one of the key New Testament texts that refers to God’s people as “strangers and exiles on earth.” But the point of the entire chapter is how people who lived by faith in God’s heavenly promises accomplished great feats on earth in the middle of history. They showed they desired a heavenly country, not by retreating from worldly realities, but by trusting God on earth.

Toward the end of the chapter, having run out of time to describe more characters, the author gives another summary statement of people “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:33–34). What is striking about that passage is how earthy it is. Faith in God’s promises does not produce people who eschew engagement with the world. Just the opposite! By faith they obeyed God on earth, even in the face of extreme suffering and loss. “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:37–38). The world is not worthy of people who live on earth with heavenly hope.

3. Exercising Dominion on Earth

What can we learn from the Jewish exile in Babylon about what it means to live as sojourners and exiles on earth? Through the prophet Jeremiah, God gave very specific instructions to his people regarding their lifestyle in exile:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:4-7).

Perhaps surprisingly, this exile mandate echoes the language of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Even in exile, under God’s judgment for their sin, God had not abandoned his purpose for his people to bear his image, exercise faithful dominion under his authority, cultivate the world, and increase and multiply.

If we are to see ourselves as exiles on earth, what kind of life should an exile mentality produce? According to Jeremiah, exiles should live with a settled dominion mindset—build houses, plant gardens, raise families, and engage the culture.

4. Guests in God’s World

The other sense in which God’s people are sojourners and exiles has to do with the fact that we live in God’s world as creatures who depend completely on God. Psalm 39:12 says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.”

This perspective produces humility and reliance on the Lord, as David prayed: “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding” (1 Chronicles 29:14–15).

And in Leviticus, when God gave laws on the redemption of land and property, his instructions were grounded in this reality. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Leviticus 25:23).

This outlook will not cause God’s people to minimize the importance of his moral law for the world; it deepens and strengthens it. If we are guests in God’s world, then we should care deeply about what God expects of us and how he commands us to live. Secular, pagan, idol-worshiping nations do not get special permission to do as they please. They too live in God’s world and need to know what God requires.

5. Unstained by Worldliness

The other key New Testament text that uses “sojourners and exiles” language is 1 Peter 2:11, which says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

The way the phrase “sojourners and exiles” is used these days, one would expect 1 Peter 2:11 to read, “I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from cultural engagement.” But the meaning in context is purely ethical. It says nothing about engagement in politics or culture. Instead, it calls Christians to avoid sin.

Philippians 3:20 does not mention “sojourners and exiles,” but it says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20–21). In context, this is contrasted with those who “walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.”

Regarding such people, Paul says, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19).

Again, the point of our heavenly citizenship is moral purity and perseverance in a fallen world. In a world full of unbelief and moral depravity, the Christian doesn’t fit in or belong. Our ultimate allegiance is to Christ, and we long for his return. And the same power of Christ that will raise and transform our bodies is the very power by which he is subjecting all things to himself.

Conclusion

The Bible does refer to Christians as strangers and exiles, but that metaphor does not mean what many today claim it means. Far from signaling a marginalized church with minimal impact, avoiding cultural influence and engagement, Scripture describes God’s people as living courageously in this world, fueled by faith in God’s promises. Rather than retreat, a “sojourners and exiles” mindset fuels courageous cultural engagement for Christ.