Reconciliation, Aliens and being Missional

1 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. [11] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling [12] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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6:3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
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6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
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17 Therefore go out from their midst,and be separate from them, says the Lord,and touch no unclean thing;then I will welcome you,18 and I will be a father to you,and you shall be sons and daughters to me,says the Lord Almighty.”
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Within these two chapters of 1 Corintians there seems to be a dynamic tension between being in the world and being holy. While we are called to a ministry of reconciliation, with all of its heroic endeavors, we are also called to be aliens. This is not our home and it should never feel too comfortable. As soon as I start wondering if heaven 'could' be better than this life, I know that either I have ascended to the highest peaks of thankfulness, or more likely, I have succombed to the deception that heaven just isn't as good as the 'real world'. Here is where the lenses from both parts of the passage suddenly come into focus. The Kingdom of God 'is' the 'real world' and we are natives of that land. Our ministry of reconciliation comes in the welcoming of all creation into that new birth and life through Jesus. The term 'mission' has gotten some wear in the last few years, I believe, with a Holy Spirit prompting along these lines. Being in the world, but not of the world seems like a paradox at times, a mystery to the world. but one man;s mystery is another's miracle. What wonder is your life in the eyes of strangers and angels?