1Pe 2:9-10 | KingComments | STEP | . You may know that you belong to a “chosen race”. That’s awesome of course! That race embraces all people that are born of God. In the Old Testament Israel was God’s chosen people ( ; ). That embraced everyone who was born an Israelite. But the chosen race which you belong to, surpasses all boundaries and goes beyond every nationality. This race is not connected to earth, but to heaven and to Christ Who is there. You may also know that you belong to “a royal priesthood” (cf. ). Earlier, in , you saw that you partake of a “holy priesthood”. The important aspect there is the approach to God as a priest in His house to have fellowship with Him about the Lord Jesus. The “royal priesthood” that you now have read about, presents another aspect of the priesthood, which is toward the world. You can say that your service as a holy priest in the sanctuary is the source of your service as a royal priest in the world. In the sanctuary you see Christ and you are transformed into His image. The result will be that you proclaim the excellencies, i.e. the excellent features or attributes of God in the world. In other words, that you reveal His attributes. Also this priest service is for all believers. So the royal priesthood is focused on the world. The important thing thereby is that you indeed radiate the dignity of a king, but still do not exercise the rights that a king has. A wonderful example we have in the Lord Jesus. He is a King when He stands before Pilate ( ). That’s what He also radiates, but He doesn’t exercise that right at that moment. The exercise of His kingship still has to come and therefore also the exercise of our kingship. But to know Who the Lord Jesus is, the world doesn’t need to wait for the time that He comes. We are here to represent Him. We are not kings yet in the sense of ‘ruling kings’, but we are indeed able to behave like kings. We do that by showing God’s excellencies. Before we take a look at the excellencies of God, you see that there are still two more descriptions mentioned, regarding the company you partake of. You belong to “a holy nation” (cf. ; ; ). The company you now belong to is completely separated from all nations of the world. As a member of His nation, God has set you apart from all nations on earth, so that you may be for Him alone. That is emphasized by the expression “a people for [God’s] own possession” ( ; ; ). God has a people of His own, that is the people that He has chosen to be for Himself through the work of the Lord Jesus ( ). Through this people He wants to show the world Who He is. This people has the responsibility to proclaim His “excellencies”. Proclaiming has not that much to do with ‘speaking’, but more with ‘revealing’, demonstrating by what you as a member of that people, are, what you do and what you say. It is about your whole life, in which God and the Lord Jesus can be seen. To make that possible He has called you out of the darkness of sin to be in His “marvelous light”. That light is ‘marvelous’. In that light you see Who He is. God took away everything that disturbed that and He also took you away from the realm of darkness. What a great God He is that He proceeded in this way, making no concession to even one of His holy demands. . There has been a tremendous change in the relationship between God and what Peter can now call “the people of God”. They to whom Peter writes this letter were in literal sense God’s people indeed, but in spiritual sense they were “not a people”. They lost the right to be God’s people. God metaphorically expressed that in the family situation of the prophet Hosea and in the names that Hosea had to give his children ( ). The unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife toward Hosea is a metaphor of the unfaithfulness of God’s people toward Him. In the names that Hosea had to give his children, God makes clear that He couldn’t call His people His people anymore (Lo-Ammi, ) and that He could not allow them to partake of mercy anymore (Lo-Ruchama, ). What applies here to God’s old people we can apply to each man. By God’s grace there will be a change in this broken relationship. Soon He will pick up the thread with His people and call them His people again and be merciful to them again. That is what Peter applies to those whom he is addressing and it is also applied to you. Through the work of Christ on the cross and faith in Him, they have become God’s people and you too have become a member of that people. You can only praise Him for this great grace and mercy and show in your life that you honor Him for that. . How this will take place, is discussed in the following verses. In the section of chapter 2:11-3:12 is told how you can be God’s witness in the world. You get instructions there for a more detailed implementation of proclaiming God’s excellencies. It is about your walk of life, in which there are several areas in which your life takes place. For instance, that you are subjected to the government in society. You are also dealing with your job or study and how you behave yourself therein. Also the way of life in the family and among relatives and your conduct among the believers are dealt with. Peter presents these instructions as admonitions or exhortations. To create an entry for his admonitions, he addresses his readers as “beloved”. In that way he surrounds his admonitions with the realm and warmth of brotherly love. He is absolutely aware of the fact that believers live in a hostile world which causes them to be exposed to suffering. In the world you are an ‘alien’ and a ‘stranger’. As an alien you live among people who live in a place which is their home, while your home is somewhere else. They have various facilities, while you are not entitled to anything. As a stranger you are on strange ground and you speak another language, while you know that your own homeland is heaven. By the way of life of the people around you and the environment you live in, you continually are under pressure to adapt yourself to their world of life. Therefore the reminder of the fact that you are an alien and a stranger, is not superfluous. There is still another danger that you may adapt to the world and that has to do with your “fleshy lusts”. That doesn’t refer to what is around you , but it refers to what is within yourself . The world you live in and the fleshy lusts within you, form a perfect match together. The fleshy lusts always seek to have control. Therefore Peter admonishes his readers to abstain from those lusts, meaning that they are to be ignored, for otherwise they will bring the soul into bondage again. You shouldn’t pay attention to them ( ). The Holy Spirit, Who resists the lust of the flesh ( ), is willing to give the strength for that. The fleshy lusts always fight against the soul that through conversion wants to nourish himself with Christ. . Therefore you must also do something in reaction to that and that is to clearly say ‘no’ to the lusts of the flesh. Then you can concentrate yourself on a behavior that is “excellent”. This is also something the Holy Spirit is willing to help with ( ). An excellent behavior “among the Gentiles”, that are the people of the world, underlines the confession that you make with your mouth. Despite your excellent behavior the people of the world will slander you. It should not be the case that they have a reason to slander you because of your evil behavior. But even if you do good, the world will slander you. That is what they also did of the Lord Jesus, Who did only good. The only way to respond to that slander is by good deeds, not by defensive speaking. Unbelievers will certainly notice those good deeds. But they do not want to recognize them as such, because they will notice God therein and in no way they want to acknowledge Him. There comes a day that they will be forced to glorify God on the basis of those good deeds. That day is “the day of visitation”. It may be that in the life of such slandering unbelievers something happens through which God speaks to their conscience. That’s when a visitation comes over them. Then they will discover that Christians have something that they lack. Then they will turn to the God Who they formerly met in the good deeds of those He owns and Whom they had rejected. Isn’t that a wonderful result of your good deeds? Now read 1 Peter 2:9-12 again. Reflection: Which excellencies of God do you know and how can you proclaim them?

‏ 1 Peter 2:9-10

A Royal Priesthood

1Pet 2:9. You may know that you belong to a “chosen race”. That’s awesome of course! That race embraces all people that are born of God. In the Old Testament Israel was God’s chosen people (Deu 7:6; Isa 43:20). That embraced everyone who was born an Israelite. But the chosen race which you belong to, surpasses all boundaries and goes beyond every nationality. This race is not connected to earth, but to heaven and to Christ Who is there.

You may also know that you belong to “a royal priesthood” (cf. Exo 19:6). Earlier, in 1Pet 2:5, you saw that you partake of a “holy priesthood”. The important aspect there is the approach to God as a priest in His house to have fellowship with Him about the Lord Jesus. The “royal priesthood” that you now have read about, presents another aspect of the priesthood, which is toward the world.

You can say that your service as a holy priest in the sanctuary is the source of your service as a royal priest in the world. In the sanctuary you see Christ and you are transformed into His image. The result will be that you proclaim the excellencies, i.e. the excellent features or attributes of God in the world. In other words, that you reveal His attributes. Also this priest service is for all believers.

So the royal priesthood is focused on the world. The important thing thereby is that you indeed radiate the dignity of a king, but still do not exercise the rights that a king has. A wonderful example we have in the Lord Jesus. He is a King when He stands before Pilate (Jn 18:33-37). That’s what He also radiates, but He doesn’t exercise that right at that moment. The exercise of His kingship still has to come and therefore also the exercise of our kingship.

But to know Who the Lord Jesus is, the world doesn’t need to wait for the time that He comes. We are here to represent Him. We are not kings yet in the sense of ‘ruling kings’, but we are indeed able to behave like kings. We do that by showing God’s excellencies.

Before we take a look at the excellencies of God, you see that there are still two more descriptions mentioned, regarding the company you partake of. You belong to “a holy nation” (cf. Exo 19:6; Deu 7:6; Isa 62:12). The company you now belong to is completely separated from all nations of the world. As a member of His nation, God has set you apart from all nations on earth, so that you may be for Him alone. That is emphasized by the expression “a people for [God’s] own possession” (Exo 19:6; Deu 14:2 ; Deu 26:18; Mal 3:17). God has a people of His own, that is the people that He has chosen to be for Himself through the work of the Lord Jesus (Tit 2:14). Through this people He wants to show the world Who He is.

This people has the responsibility to proclaim His “excellencies”. Proclaiming has not that much to do with ‘speaking’, but more with ‘revealing’, demonstrating by what you as a member of that people, are, what you do and what you say. It is about your whole life, in which God and the Lord Jesus can be seen. To make that possible He has called you out of the darkness of sin to be in His “marvelous light”. That light is ‘marvelous’. In that light you see Who He is. God took away everything that disturbed that and He also took you away from the realm of darkness. What a great God He is that He proceeded in this way, making no concession to even one of His holy demands.

1Pet 2:10. There has been a tremendous change in the relationship between God and what Peter can now call “the people of God”. They to whom Peter writes this letter were in literal sense God’s people indeed, but in spiritual sense they were “not a people”. They lost the right to be God’s people.

God metaphorically expressed that in the family situation of the prophet Hosea and in the names that Hosea had to give his children (Hos 1:6 ; 9 ; Hos 2:1 ; 22). The unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife toward Hosea is a metaphor of the unfaithfulness of God’s people toward Him. In the names that Hosea had to give his children, God makes clear that He couldn’t call His people His people anymore (Lo-Ammi, Hos 1:9) and that He could not allow them to partake of mercy anymore (Lo-Ruchama, Hos 1:6). What applies here to God’s old people we can apply to each man.

By God’s grace there will be a change in this broken relationship. Soon He will pick up the thread with His people and call them His people again and be merciful to them again. That is what Peter applies to those whom he is addressing and it is also applied to you. Through the work of Christ on the cross and faith in Him, they have become God’s people and you too have become a member of that people. You can only praise Him for this great grace and mercy and show in your life that you honor Him for that.

1Pet 2:11. How this will take place, is discussed in the following verses. In the section of chapter 2:11-3:12 is told how you can be God’s witness in the world. You get instructions there for a more detailed implementation of proclaiming God’s excellencies. It is about your walk of life, in which there are several areas in which your life takes place. For instance, that you are subjected to the government in society. You are also dealing with your job or study and how you behave yourself therein. Also the way of life in the family and among relatives and your conduct among the believers are dealt with.

Peter presents these instructions as admonitions or exhortations. To create an entry for his admonitions, he addresses his readers as “beloved”. In that way he surrounds his admonitions with the realm and warmth of brotherly love. He is absolutely aware of the fact that believers live in a hostile world which causes them to be exposed to suffering. In the world you are an ‘alien’ and a ‘stranger’. As an alien you live among people who live in a place which is their home, while your home is somewhere else. They have various facilities, while you are not entitled to anything. As a stranger you are on strange ground and you speak another language, while you know that your own homeland is heaven.

By the way of life of the people around you and the environment you live in, you continually are under pressure to adapt yourself to their world of life. Therefore the reminder of the fact that you are an alien and a stranger, is not superfluous. There is still another danger that you may adapt to the world and that has to do with your “fleshy lusts”. That doesn’t refer to what is around you, but it refers to what is within yourself.

The world you live in and the fleshy lusts within you, form a perfect match together. The fleshy lusts always seek to have control. Therefore Peter admonishes his readers to abstain from those lusts, meaning that they are to be ignored, for otherwise they will bring the soul into bondage again. You shouldn’t pay attention to them (Rom 13:14). The Holy Spirit, Who resists the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:17), is willing to give the strength for that. The fleshy lusts always fight against the soul that through conversion wants to nourish himself with Christ.

1Pet 2:12. Therefore you must also do something in reaction to that and that is to clearly say ‘no’ to the lusts of the flesh. Then you can concentrate yourself on a behavior that is “excellent”. This is also something the Holy Spirit is willing to help with (Gal 5:16). An excellent behavior “among the Gentiles”, that are the people of the world, underlines the confession that you make with your mouth.

Despite your excellent behavior the people of the world will slander you. It should not be the case that they have a reason to slander you because of your evil behavior. But even if you do good, the world will slander you. That is what they also did of the Lord Jesus, Who did only good.

The only way to respond to that slander is by good deeds, not by defensive speaking. Unbelievers will certainly notice those good deeds. But they do not want to recognize them as such, because they will notice God therein and in no way they want to acknowledge Him.

There comes a day that they will be forced to glorify God on the basis of those good deeds. That day is “the day of visitation”. It may be that in the life of such slandering unbelievers something happens through which God speaks to their conscience. That’s when a visitation comes over them. Then they will discover that Christians have something that they lack. Then they will turn to the God Who they formerly met in the good deeds of those He owns and Whom they had rejected. Isn’t that a wonderful result of your good deeds?

Now read 1 Peter 2:9-12 again.

Reflection: Which excellencies of God do you know and how can you proclaim them?