Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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The Bible tells us that all of God's children are strangers and pilgrims on earth. We know that. But every time somebody tries to make himself a stranger or a pilgrim, he just makes himself another part of this weird world. Righteous people are strangers here not because they try to be or even want to be, but because God's holiness and love make them different. We never please God by trying to make ourselves different from others. In fact, we can't make ourselves different from others. Every "new thing" that men do in their efforts to be different from others is a failure, for "There is no new thing under the sun." Every different thing eventually proves to be just more of the same old stuff of sin.
Changing man and making him a "new creature" is God's work, not man's. Man cannot make himself a stranger here, no matter how hard he tries. The weirder a person makes himself in an effort to be different, the more he fits in with this wacky planet. This is a bizarre, wicked planet, and that is why it will be destroyed (2Pet. 3). In the meantime, we are to live simple and godly lives, content with Jesus. Living a sweet and normal life is what makes God's children strangers on earth, not any abnormal behavior or dress.
A godly person makes every effort to be as much like an ordinary person in this world as he can be, yet without sin. That's what Jesus did for us. He became as much like us as he could be, while having no sin. That is why we thought there was something wrong with him and killed him. He was normal and pure; we were the ones who were sick.
I was taught in an acting class in college that the proper way to act like a drunk person is to try to be sober. After all, isn't that what a drunk person is trying to do? In the Lord, there is a similarity concerning being spiritual. The people who are truly spiritual are not trying to be different from the world; they are trying to fit in (yet without sin) so that they can help somebody. We don't have to try to be what we really are. On the other hand, those who are not truly spiritual are the ones who make the greatest effort to appear to be. And the harder they try, the weirder and more ungodly they become, in spite of how they appear. The most spiritual people I have ever met, the "deepest" people in the Lord, have also been the simplest, most down-to-earth people that I have ever met. They were very different from the world internally, but outwardly they would have impressed no one with their sanctity. They weren't even trying.
The reason the world's religious men and women wear clothes that are different from the norm is to impress others of their closeness to God. The children of God are not to do that. If there is anything that causes a child of God to stand out in a crowd, it should be the nature of Christ shining through them. Appearances can be deceiving. God wants us to walk in His Spirit and not to concern ourselves with attempts to impress others with appearances.
Pray for eyes to see what I am telling you. Beware those who wear tall, pointed hats as a sign that they are from God; it is instead a sign that they are not of God at all. Beware those who wear flowing robes and white collars as signs that they are anointed servants of Jesus; such things are signs that those men have no anointing from God at all. Beware those who wear crosses about their necks as a sign of their devotion to the Lord; that cross is instead a sign of what they would do to Jesus again, were he to return to earth as a man. All such things are used by carnally minded men to make themselves appear to be "pilgrims and strangers in the earth." In truth, using such things makes them fit right in with the world's religious system of vanity and lies. All the world uses symbols to prove that they have a connection with God. The children of God have the connection; they need no symbols.
It is sad to see a child of God who enjoys being different from others. That is an indication of a serious spiritual problem. The righteous take no pleasure in being different from other people; they want everybody to love Jesus together and be made free. They want all people everywhere to understand life in the same way, to have the same judgment, and to bear the same love toward one another. And this was Paul's earnest desire for God's people (1Cor. 1:10; Phip. 2:1-2). And in Christ alone lies the hope for unity among men. The boast of the upright has never been in how different they were from others in the world but in how God molded their lives to be like Him (1Cor. 1:31).
Godly joy comes not from being different from the world but from being like God, and Jesus showed us how. Jesus had no halo. There were several occasions in which he was being sought in a crowd and could not be found. This is how God makes men truly to be pilgrims and strangers with Him. By the power of His Spirit, He re-creates the inward man, thus making us "new creatures" that do not belong on earth. Everything and everybody else on earth does belong here, no matter how hard they try to appear not to. Actually, the harder they try, the more they belong.
May God save us from the vain effort of trying to make ourselves pilgrims and strangers on earth. By donning clever, ornate garments or by performing somber ceremonies, it is possible to persuade the blind to think that we are of God, but why bother? What will it matter on the Day of Judgment if others in this life thought we were holy?