“This World Is Not My Home”
by Chris Simmons
The first verse of this song by Albert Brumley reads, “This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” Another song we sing carries a similar thought. In the song “The King’s Business” by E.T. and Flora Cassel, the first verse reads, “I am a stranger here, within a foreign land; My home is far away upon a golden strand; A messenger to be of realms beyond the sea, I’m here on business for my King.” And yet another song, “Here We Are But Straying Pilgrims” by I. N. Carman and W. O. Perkins begins with the words, “Here we are but straying pilgrims; Here our path is often dim; But to cheer us on our journey, Still we sing this wayside hymn: Yonder over the rolling river, Where the shining mansions rise, Soon will be our home forever, And the smile of the blessed Giver, Gladdens all our longing eyes.”
The lessons taught in these songs are simple ones but extremely challenging in application. We are to view our time upon earth as one sojourning in a foreign land. Our time upon earth is not to be viewed as a permanent dwelling but a temporary habitation. As awkward as it may seem, we are to feel as a stranger here in our stay upon earth. These songs speak of a level of dissatisfaction with life on earth (“I just can’t feel at home in this world anymore”) when compared to our eternal hope.
Many of us have experienced the concept called camping where we leave home and go and journey somewhere in nature. While camping, we understand that we are in a temporary dwelling (tent) that isn’t designed to be a permanent home and we don’t try to make it such. But do we understand that our entire life on earth is to be viewed from the same perspective?
When God called Abram to leave his home and travel to a land which he would be shown, it was made clear to him that he and his family to come would abide in a land that was not their own until the land promise would ultimately be fulfilled. Genesis 15:13, “And God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’” It’s interesting that even after inheriting the promised land, God reminded His people when He gave the law that they were not to view the land as their own. We read in Leviticus 25:23, “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.”
David likewise understood what it meant to live as a sojourner like Abraham as he wrote in Psalms 39:12, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee, a sojourner like all my fathers.” When David dedicated the temple, he prayed to God and said in I Chronicles 29:14-15, “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee. For we are sojourners before Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow.” Though we are blessed beyond measure, like David, may we with humility realize that all we have comes from God and that we also are but sojourners and tenants upon earth.
Like Abram and his descendants and like David, we live for a time in a land that is not our home of promise and therefore we ought to act and behave accordingly. Peter wrote in I Peter 2:11-12, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” As ambassadors of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 5:20), we are expected to, as parents often say to their children, behave ourselves during our fleeting time upon earth.
God’s faithful have always lived with this awareness that this world was not their home. We read in Hebrews 11:13, “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” If we are going to be someone who God approves, we will also confess our status as “strangers and exiles on the earth.” Exiles because our citizenship is elsewhere: Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
There are some practical applications that the attitude that this world is not my home will have on my attitude and life.
- Regarding the things of this life. If this is not our home, we will not focus on material things of life and seek to accumulate and hold on to them as if we were going to be here permanently (Luke 12:16-21). It’s not wrong to own a home or other possessions of this life, but it is wrong to make that earthly temporal dwelling and our other possessions the focus of our life. The danger is that our physical blessings will tempt us to establish roots here upon earth that we don’t want to leave. I’m convinced that the root of all pre-millennial doctrines is that folks have set down roots upon earth and don’t really want to leave. We are to focus on laying up for ourselves “treasures in heaven” rather than “treasures upon earth” (Matthew 6:19-21). These verses remind us that our treasure is where our heart is. We are to appreciate the fact that because of God’s abundant blessings our needs are met while we pass through this life and that whatever God blesses us with is to be used to His glory and to serve and honor others (I Timothy 6:17-19). We are charged with the responsibility to make wise decisions regarding those things left in our charge or control as God’s stewards.
- Regarding the difficulties of life. If our time here is temporary, then any challenges we face are short lived when we focus on our desire to return home. Paul’s ability to view “the sufferings of this present time” to be “not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18) was based on his conviction that this world was not his home and that all suffering was “momentary” and “light” (II Corinthians 4:17).
- Regarding the end of life. In fact, the end of our sojourning is not the end, but rather the beginning. To those in Christ, the end of this life is to be considered a blessing. John records in Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” Like Paul, we can look with anticipation to the “crown of righteousness” (II Timothy 4:8) and like Peter, we can long for our “entrance into the eternal kingdom” (II Peter 1:11). At that time, everything unpleasant about our sojourning upon earth will end forever (Revelation 21:3-4).
As blessed and wonderful as our life on earth is, may we never forget that this world is not my home and that we are just passing through.