Alienation

A state of being separate or apart from something or someone, often accompanied by an awareness of the separation. Human beings are alienated from God on account of sin. Alienation is also encountered in other areas of life, including relations between believers, and between believers and secular society.

Alienation from God because of sin

Sin causes separation from God

Galatians 5:4 Those seeking to justify themselves cut themselves off from Jesus Christ's saving work; Colossians 1:21 See also Isaiah 59:1–2; Ezekiel 39:23–24

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.

Seen in discomfort in God's presence

Genesis 3:8–10 See also Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8

Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?” “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

Seen in defeat in battle

Deuteronomy 1:42 See also Numbers 14:41–45; Joshua 7:11–12; Judges 2:11–15

But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”

Seen in unanswered prayer

Isaiah 59:1–2 See also Deuteronomy 1:45; Psalm 66:18; Proverbs 1:28–30; Isaiah 1:15

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

Seen in unaccepted worship

Isaiah 1:11–14; Amos 5:21–23; Malachi 1:10

Seen in lost closeness with God

Genesis 3:23–24; Exodus 33:3; Isaiah 64:7; Ezekiel 8:6; Hosea 5:6; Jonah 1:3

A sense of alienation from God

Feelings of alienation

Psalm 22:1; Isaiah 49:14 See also Psalm 39:12, Psalm 42:3–4, Psalm 42:9–10, Psalm 44:23–24; Isaiah 40:27; Lamentations 2:1; Matthew 27:46 parallel Mark 15:34 Jesus Christ's alienation from God as he bore the consequences of human sin was felt and actual.

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!”

The reassurance of God's concern

Isaiah 49:15–16 See also Isaiah 43:1–5, Isaiah 44:21, Isaiah 54:7; Jeremiah 31:20

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you! Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.

Alienation from others

Alienation caused by a third party

Proverbs 16:28 See also Proverbs 17:9; Galatians 4:17 False teachers in Galatia tried to drive a wedge between Paul and the church.

A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.

Examples of alienation

Genesis 3:7 Man and woman; Genesis 4:3–8 Cain and Abel; Genesis 27:41 Jacob and Esau; 1 Samuel 18:8–9 Saul and David; Job 19:13–19 Job and his family and friends; Psalm 69:8 the psalmist and his family; Jeremiah 12:6 Jeremiah and his family; Acts 15:39 Paul and Barnabas; Ephesians 2:12 Jew and Gentile

Overcoming alienation

Being reconciled to God

Colossians 1:22 See also Romans 5:11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–20; 1 Peter 2:25

But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence —

Reconciliation with others

Colossians 3:13 See also Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:23–24

Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Examples of reconciliation

Genesis 33:4 Jacob and Esau; Genesis 50:19–21 Joseph and his brothers; Ephesians 2:14–16 Jew and Gentile

God's people are aliens in the world

John 15:18–19 See also John 17:16; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11:13–16; 1 Peter 2:11

If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

Responsibility to the alien

God's concern for the outsider

Psalm 146:9 See also Deuteronomy 10:18; Jeremiah 30:17

The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.

The example of Jesus Christ

Matthew 9:10–11 parallels Mark 2:15–16, Luke 5:29–30 Jesus Christ welcomed those who had been alienated by the rest of society. See also Matthew 8:2–3 parallels Mark 1:40–42, Luke 5:12–13 Jesus Christ touched the “untouchable” man with leprosy; Matthew 11:19 parallel Luke 7:34

Later, as Jesus was dining at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Equal treatment for the alien

Leviticus 19:34 See also Exodus 12:48–49; Leviticus 24:22

You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Ensuring justice for the alien

Deuteronomy 24:17 The weaker members of Israelite society are of special concern. See also Exodus 22:21; Jeremiah 22:3; Zechariah 7:9–10

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

Special provision for the alien

Leviticus 23:22 God makes special provision for the poor so that they will have a share in the blessings of the land. See also Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:20, Deuteronomy 14:28–29 The third year's tithe is shared with those without inheritance in the land.

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the LORD your God.’”