Verse 11.— Dearly beloved, I beseech you. The appeal is urgent and tender— I beseech you. Strangers and pilgrims. This the people of God while on earth must continue to be. We are strangers here; we are traveling, as pilgrims do, to another country, to the heav­enly country. Why appeal to such? Why exhort to abstain from fleshly lusts? Which war against the soul. The natural disposition is to acquire earthly possessions, amass riches and engage in earth's pleasure. These, the apostle would have them understand, are deadly enemies to the soul, to purity of life, and obstacles to the upbuilding of the Christlikeness. They should abstain from these because they war against the soul. Strangers and pilgrims must leave these all behind when they pass into that heavenly country. Why not, then, abstain?