Spend like a foreigner

Peter addresses his readers as foreigners, people living in a place that is not finally home. In verse 17 he says to live out our time as foreigners here in reverent fear. Then he reminds them what they were bought with. Not silver or gold, which perish, but the precious blood of Christ.

A foreigner handles money differently. Someone posted abroad for two years does not sink everything into the house. They keep the return in view. They spend on what will matter when the posting ends, and they hold the rest loosely. That is roughly the posture Peter asks for.

This is not a call to stinginess or to guilt about ordinary purchases. It is a call to remember what is perishable and what is not. Silver and gold perish. The blood of Christ does not. A life redeemed at that price should be spent in a way that shows we know the difference.

A practical lesson for an ordinary week: before a purchase that will sit on the card for a while, ask one question. Does this fit a person who is passing through? Sometimes the answer is yes, and you buy it gladly. Sometimes the question is enough to make you put it down.

Reverent fear is not dread. It is the awareness that our days and our dollars are being lived in front of a Father who judges each person's work impartially and who paid an unpayable price for us. That awareness does not make money smaller. It makes it honest.