1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
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The way we identify ourselves also seems to lead to the way we divide ourselves from each other and the way we form prejudices. The way we identify ourselves often separates us from others. Perhaps the three most common dimensions that we identify ourselves along are (1) race, (2) religion and (3) country. It seems that most of the controversy and news items of our day come from conflicts and issues that surround race, religion and country. The way people form allegiances and a sense of identity to one or more of these becomes their measure of self worth and purpose. If something threatens them (their race...their religion...their country)...they will dig in and defend...because something is threatening their very identity. This is how man's way of identity leads to issues that often cannot be resolved peacefully.
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Peter is writing to a people who also have found identity along those three dimensions. But they are not earthly or natural or worldly in definition. Those who have come to love and trust Jesus, the promised messiah, are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation"....and, perhaps most importantly, "a people for his own possession." They are not a people of one human race...or of one religion that tries to follow man-originated efforts to reach God, or of a nation that seeks to elevate itself, or defend itself, from other nations.
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Believers in Jesus are a people who do not identify themselves so much as they are find their identity in the Lord.
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blessings,
Rob Smith
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"Death is inevitable. Life is a choice!"
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."
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