“For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).
A “new year” has arrived. Something that is new usually is different from the old. A new year hopefully will bring with it new and better things. The old was not satisfactory, not what we wanted it to be. Accordingly, people wish one another “a happy new year.” In the Bible the word happy means to be blessed. As Christians we can surely wish one another the blessings of the Lord in the year that is to come.
Usually the expression “a happy new year” has a different meaning. People want a better new year, a better world and more earthly happiness in the same old world. In the United States we have just had another presidential election. It was preceded by all kinds of promises by the candidates of a better America. But, in fact, we know that what the wise Solomon said long ago is still true, “What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to change adverse and wrong conditions where we can. It is our Christian moral responsibility to try. But we’re not going to fundamentally change the world. There will always be sin in this world, even an increase of it in the last days, with the results of immorality, sickness and pain, suffering, war, poverty, and death. We must remember, as the letter to the Hebrews says, “For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city that is to come.”
The author here speaks of a city and ofChristians seeking the city that is to come. A city suggests permanence. In cities people live in houses in contrast with camping in tents which are usually temporary. Tent living is also more insecure and less protected than living in a house or city. In Bible times cities usually had surrounding walls for protection. Abraham lived in tents all his life. It taught him that life in this world was not permanent and not secure. In this text we read that we do not, here, have “an abiding” city. Nothing in this world is permanent, lasting. “All good things come to an end,” we say. This is true of everything in this world, health, good things we may enjoy for a time, marriages, friendships and even life itself. Considering this gives us a feeling of insecurity, perhaps even discouragement, and makes us look for something better. This will also be true in 1985.
Christians, according to this passage, “seek the city that is to come.” This “city” is the “new Jerusalem,” also called “the new heaven and earth.” It is the place to which the Lord will take us when our life on earth is finished. The writer states that we are seeking the city that is to come. We are looking for that city, living for it is our goal.
This anticipation of the future makes us pilgrims in this world. What is a pilgrim? He is not merely someone who has left his home. A person who has only done that may be a drifter. A pilgrim is one who has left his own home because he is on his way to another home. He has a vision, a goal, and he is determined to “hang loose” on everything else until he possesses that.
Seeking that city means more than we know that we will be saved when we die. The heavenly life will not merely be a “hereafter,” something that will follow this life as we sometimes regard it. No, heaven and the Lord’s heavenly things are to be our goal. The apostle Paul said, “To me to live is Christ; to die is gain.” True Christian living means that now we live for Christ and want to serve Him. Then to die will be gain, because we will do it perfectly in heaven.
The basic principle of Christian living has implications for other aspects of our lives. Because we are not looking for a city in this life, this world isn’t our “home.” The text reads: “For we have here not an abiding city, but we seek after the city that is to come.” In the context we read of Christ having been crucified outside of the gate of Jerusalem. He was rejected by people, by the world and the nominal church. Christians must be willing and ready to bear this reproach with Him, also being rejected. Jesus said that because they have hated Him they will also hate us who follow Him. Seeking the city that is to come affects our attitude towards material and secular things. The apostle John said that we should not love the world nor the things that are in this world. Paul says that we must use this world, but not misuse or abuse it. Why ? Because we do not look for a city here below, but one that is to come. How different this is from the attitude which we often see in our own lives and in the lives of other professing Christians.
We are materialistic. We profess to be children of God. We believe in Jesus Christ. When we die we expect to go to heaven. But the Scriptures tell God’s people to seek the heavenly things in this life. If we are children of God we must begin to do this now.
Another year has arrived. It will be another year in the same old sinful world. Everything will be affected by time and change, for nothing here is permanent. That need not disturb us if we are seeking not earthly but heavenly things. May the Lord forgive us for and deliver us from our preoccupation with the earth and our conformity to the world. May He also give us grace to live according to this direction of the Scripture. Let us daily pray that He will enable us to seek the city that lies in the future, and to prepare by the way of sanctification to live in it. Living in this way, may we all experience real blessings and happiness in 1985.
