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. 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.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. --> I Peter 2:9-12
The first thing that you would have to do to understand this passage is to also understand I Peter 2:4-12. To not make you X out this window, I will summarize it briefly.
When it comes to Christianity, people respond in 3 different ways. The first is that of ignorance. Some people have never heard of Jesus or have never been given a decent understanding of who he was and what he came to do. If you're reading this, you probably do not fall into this category, but if you do, I hope you understand a little bit better.
The second response is people who know of Jesus and stumble over him. They stumble over Jesus for two possible reasons. The first reason is that they are offended by Jesus (our passage refers to Isaiah 8:14). His message and his mission are things that people don't like and reject. The second reason people stumble over Jesus is because they don't want people telling them what to do (I Peter 2:8). I will argue that most people reject Jesus NOT because of the natural revelation of God in nature or special revelation of God in scripture; people just don't want somebody else telling them what to do. God has some pretty undeniable qualities going on in his resume, but people wont even open their eyes to it because they are too filled with pride to have somebody else tell them that they are wrong and that they need to change. In America especially, people really think they have it all together. Overwhelming pride is a huge boot that gets caught on this stumbling block of Jesus. Some of you who will read this will fall into this category, and if that is the case, I would ask you to not take offense at Jesus because he tells you what to do, but instead admit your faults and the fact that you are not the most intelligent being in the universe and heed the message. You're wrong; He's right. He made the expanses of the universe. You can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; He's officially more intelligent than you.
The third response are those that fall into our passage: you do not stumble over Jesus, but instead you stand upon what he has said and promised. You are "not like that", instead you are priests, a holy nation, and God's possession.
Priests: You have a special connection to God. Like the priests of the Old Testament who were the only ones who could converse with God, you now have full access because of Jesus. There is no experience requirement, nor is there a location requirement. If you've trusted upon Jesus to forgive you of Sin and make you right with God, you are a priest to God.
Holy Nation: This means that you have been included into the chosen people of God, or "Spiritual Israel". You now are co-heirs with Christ and his promises, and you will also join in with the fulfillment of Old Testament promises to the chosen people. If it was promised to the Israelites, you also are a recipient. You are adopted sons and daughters of the King. You are chosen by God (you didn't chose God) and you are loved beyond measure.
God's possession: If I might say so, there are quite a few loners and sojourners in the world today. Many people deal with loneliness and the lack of companionship. While we all long for an earthly mate, it has been God's plan from the beginning to own you and call you His. Some people do not belong to God. God is yelling in their face and wants them to look to Him, but by their own choice they walk away and allow other things to possess ownership of them. For the Christian, ownership belongs to God. While most people in society feel alienated and unloved, God longs to make people his own possession; a place of belonging and love. I Peter 2:10 speaks of once being separated and now belonging. It is my prayer that every outsider to Christianity understand that they can belong, and also to every Christian that they need not feel like they don't belong or that they aren't loved. I love the quote that says "God would rather die for you than to live with out you". Isn't it true?
The study finishes up with I Peter 2:11-12. What do you do with your identity in Jesus?
YOU REALIZE THAT YOUR HOME IS NOT HERE
Far too many Christian fall into the trap of believing that THEY need to set up the Kingdom of God on this earth. The fact of the matter is that it's already here (according to Jesus), you just can't see it. It is not the job of a Christian to create this, it's God's job, and believe me He's doing it. What are we to do? A couple of things.
Stay away from evil desires: Toughy here. Being in the world but not of it, and yet repeatedly God tells the Christian that He will show a way out of temptation. We will fall, but don't ever doubt God's grace. It's pretty amazing. The simplest way to keep Jesus as the foundation of faith and not A stumbling block in your life is to watch your desires. Turn your desires away from what the world runs towards and turn it to what God gives freely. Most of the time it's similar and untainted, and it's better than what the world gives anyway.
Be careful of how you live around unbelievers: If you're expecting outsiders to Christianity in America to live like Christians, you're wrong. People who don't believe in Jesus are not going to follow what he instructed. You can either get all pissed off about it and talk about abomination city that goes on in America...OR...you can love those who don't love Jesus, and in retrospect, you. You can live missionally. What's the mission? To share God's message of love and restoration. To help people who are alienated from God experience real transformation. To help people go from trusting in themselves to trusting in God and watching the effects of Sin's curse fall out of their lives. You're not going to do that by standing outside of abortion clinics with signs that say "You're going to Hell" or "God hates fags". If you do that, or if you support that...
YOU ARE A JOKE.
We are called by God to live in such a way that points people to Him, that even if they accuse us of wrong, our HONORABLE behavior will cause them to want to give honor to the one we believe in. That's our call. That's how we are to live.
Let's become a people that lives counter-culturally. Let's let Jesus be the stumbling block he was prophesied to be, but let's not become one ourselves. People are always going to hate Christians, but Jesus said it was because of Him. If people are hating Christians because WE act like unchristian, we're doing something wrong. Let's realize that once we understand Jesus, we can understand ourselves and what we are to do, and we'll understand the point: That we're not made for this world forever, but for the one to come, and our job is to live well here and point people to the loving character of God so that they may honor Him when he comes again.
Understand Jesus
Understand Yourself
Understand the Point
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