GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE
1 Peter 2
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
We usually understand holiness to be pure and without sin but in truth that is a consequence of being holy. “Holy” means “set apart” and in relation to God it means that we are a people who are exclusively bound to God; we belong to him and he belongs to us and that necessarily means that we should be pure and without sin. But it also means that we should be known for our love, mercy, compassion and kindness because that is what God has shown himself to be to us all.
Finally, we are a priesthood. Priests are those who stand between man and God. Through the priest man can reach out to God and through the priest God can reach out to man. We are to be a people whom others around us can get to know God and reach out to him. We can also pray for them and plead their cause before God.
And so Peter tells us that while we are indeed foreigners and exiles because we no longer belong to our country and our community in heart and mind yet God does not want to take us out of our country and community but instead he wants us to be priests towards our country and community so that others may know him and come to him. We are God’s people and we must not bring shame to his name by our conduct but instead people around us will glorify God for who we are.
“For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”