THURSDAY
Today, again we revisit the main point that Peter has been driving at in this section. Remember, he is linking the church to the people of God in the Old Testament. He has already said that the believers are being built up into a spiritual house.
1 Peter 2:4–10 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
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.
In case there were any questions left in our minds as to the status of the church in the New Testament as the people of God, Peter answers it here in vv. 9-10. He takes four Old Testament designations for the people of God, formerly applied to Israel, and now applies them to the church.
- A chosen race
- A royal priesthood
- A holy nation
- A people for his own possession
Isaiah 40:21-22. This quote is from the time of the exile, which would resonate with his audience who is also in exile. The term race here refers to those descended from a particular lineage. In the Old Testament the people of God were (for the most part) from the line of Abraham. This new “chosen race” in the church is no longer based on one’s lineage. Instead, it is made up of people from every nation, tongue and tribe. The prerequisite for acceptance into the people of God is no longer along national lines, instead it is solely through “coming to Jesus” and believing in the gospel as we’ve seen this week. The “chosen” race of God, then, is multiethnic. There is no room for racism in the people of God. Instead, the church should love and cherish diversity.
Exodus 19:5-6. This is from the time of the exodus, which would resonate with his audience praying for God’s deliverance. He has already called all believers a holy priesthood. Again, this means all believers can access the presence of God without mediation. We have all been given the Spirit of God. This also implies that the church is to mediate between God and the nations. We are to represent Jesus to the world and fulfill the great commission, calling the nations to repentance and belief in Christ.
Deuteronomy 7:6; Exodus 19:6. The church is to be a people set apart by God. They have been chosen by God, made holy through the blood of Christ and are living in moral holiness. We are to be the light of the world, a city on a hill. Our lives, our moral behavior, the way we love one another, should make God look awesome.
Exodus 19:5 and Isaiah 43:20-21. This is what God said of the people of Israel when they entered into covenant relationship at Mt. Sinai. In the Isaiah passage, Isaiah prophecies of God doing a new thing after the exile.
Isaiah 43:19–21 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
The church is to be a people for God’s own possession. As we said in week two with the ransom language, we have been ransomed from our former, ignorant way of life (sin, darkness and death) to enter into covenant relationship with God. There is no sense in which Christians are free to be self-determined. No! We are God’s prized possession and in that we find our identity, purpose, peace, satisfaction, and true self-actualization.
In verse 10 he quotes from Hosea 1:9, 10; 2:23. Again, this is applied to the church, those who have come to Jesus through belief in him. They are the people of God because of the mercy of God.
This new identity for the church is one of the main reasons they were being persecuted. Being a part of the family of God (or the temple of God, to use the same analogy we’ve been following this week) had serious implications for how Christians related to their society. Christ became their primary allegiance and that conflicted with their former allegiances. They would abandon their former pagan religions or Judaism. This alone put them at odds with their society, which was not secular as ours is today. Acts 19 is a great example of how this could put Christians at odds with the broader community and even the economy in the community. So many people in Ephesus were coming to believe in Jesus that they stopped buying statues of the pagan god Artemis. A man named Demitrius who made silver shrines of Artemis got the town riled up and started a mob to protest or even kill some members of the church. The crowd ended up disbursing peacefully, but you can see how this caused economic pressure for the Christians.
It also caused family pressure. In this culture everyone in the home was required to follow the same religion as the patriarch of the family. To go against him would mean loss of inheritance and being disowned from the family.
It also put pressures on them from the government. Caesar claimed to be a god and lord. Their allegiances, however, were to Jesus as God and Lord. Christians would be brought before the governors of cities to declare their fealty to Caesar and curse Jesus. When they refused they would be put in prison or even martyred. So it was a great risk to believe in Jesus in the first century. To be a Christian in this culture required resilience.
All this to say, as Christians living in secular culture we should feel like elect exiles. If we don’t feel this tension of dual citizenship, something is off. As I said in week one of this campaign, more often than not we are too comfortable in this culture that we fail to live in our new citizenship in the kingdom of God. We fail to recognize Jesus as our preeminent, cornerstone, Lord and easily cave to the pressures of our society.