Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges [those dishonorable desires] that wage war against the soul. Verse ConceptsAbstinenceForeignersCommitment, to the worldBeggingBeing A Pilgrimencouragement, examples ofChastitydesiresLustMortificationNomadsOutsidersSanctification, Means And ResultsSelf DenialSelf IndulgenceSeparationSin, Avoidance OfSin, Accepting Forgiveness OfSociety, Positive Aspects OfSpiritual Warfare, As ConflictSpiritual Warfare, Enemies InSaints, As PilgrimsAliens, Christians In The WorldChristians, Names OfForsaking SinCitizenshipLiving For The MaterialAvoiding EvilReckoned As ForeignersAbstaining From DrugsPrinciples Of WarCitizensovereatingCharacteristics Of Pilgrims

These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth. Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country). If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it.