Zebras aren’t exactly known for blending in, and Tennesseans couldn’t help but notice the runaway zebra trotting in their backyard in June of last year. When the Murfreesboro Police Department received calls about a zebra galloping along the interstate, officers thought someone was horsing around. But after several neighborhood sightings, a week-long chase ensued and, “Ed the Zebra was captured safely after being located in a pasture near a subdivision,” according to the Associated Press. The Volunteer State instantly recognized that while there is plenty of wildlife in Tennessee (and no shortage of folklore creatures), this black-and-white cousin of the horse was a foreigner in strange territory. Because he belonged to a land across the Atlantic, he stood out too much to blend in.

Similarly, believers in Christ belong to land lying beyond this life and above the skies, “a land that is fairer than day,” called heaven. Because of this, Christians should stand out in the world too much to blend in—much more than a zebra in the backwoods of Tennessee. The Scripture teaches that there should be a black-and-white difference between those of this world and those who belong to the “kingdom not of this world” (John 18:36). Disciples of Christ should not camouflage themselves within the culture like chameleons or live under cover like secret agents, which is why Peter exhorted Christians, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Sojourners are strangers passing through—exiles living away from their homeland—and both are true of Jesus-followers who are “citizens of heaven” (Phil. 3:21).

The believer’s speech should sound like a foreign language to everyone else—upbuilding rather than destructive and seasoned with grace rather than spoiled with obscenity (Eph. 4:29; Col. 3:8). A Christian’s conduct should make other people think, “They must not be from around here.” Saints saved by grace ought to forgive in a world that desires revenge, pursue godliness in a society that applauds immorality, and live humbly in a culture inflated by pride (Eph. 4:32; Gen. 6:9; Col. 3:12). Paul the apostle said it best: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2a). The children of God are called to be “without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). A zebra without stripes would be a bizarre sight—stranger still is a professing believer indistinguishable from the world. And the return on living distinctly as a Christian pilgrim is worth it, as John Wesley wrote in his little-known hymn, How Happy is the Pilgrim’s Lot:

“Nothing on earth I call my own;

A strang­er, to the world un­known,

I all their goods des­pise; I tram­ple on their whole de­light,

and seek a coun­try out of sight,

a coun­try in the skies.”

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