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.1 Peter 2:9 ESV
Quick Summary
Who we were: no one, but God chose to love us and show his mercies
The Bible talks about us being part of the world yet not in the world. The early Christians have done more to transform the Graeco-Roman world than any culture. The modern thoughts on dignity, respect, honour and value for human life has been based on the life the early Church lived.
They were called
Exiles: People who were away from their home country. This is because they were refugees living in another world as they lost their kingdom through Adam but the second Adam had restored the kingdom. Yet, the kingdom is yet to be fully here.
Called by God: The people of God were called by God because God loved them because He chose to love them. Their calling was purposeful
Holy: because God wanted them and want to tabernacle among them. This is what God did wih the Israel. They were only allowed to move when the presence of God moved.
They were to live differently: The people (Jews) as well as Christians have been charged to not live like their neighbours.
Live with the knowledge: God valued them, they mater, others matter because of ImagoDei.
If we turn to the roots of our western tradition, we find that in Greek and Roman times not all human life was regarded as inviolable and worthy of protection. Slaves and 'barbarians' did not have a full right to life and human sacrifices and gladiatorial combat were acceptable... Spartan Law required that deformed infants be put to death; for Plato, infanticide is one of the regular institutions of the ideal State; Aristotle regards abortion as a desirable option; and the Stoic philosopher Seneca writes unapologetically: "Unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal... And whilst there were deviations from these views..., it is probably correct to say that such practices...were less proscribed in ancient times. Most historians of western morals agree that the rise of ...Christianity contributed greatly to the general feeling that human life is valuable and worthy of respect.[Text, Cases and Materials on Medical Law and Ethics, Marc Stauch , Kay Wheat - Sanctity of Human Life]
Summary
Marks of A Different people
- God's Sovereign Choice (we are given a new identiy)
- Genos
- Ethnos
- Laos
- Born Again (1 Peter 2:2) - tasted God is good (We are called in to be grafted into Jesus)
- Called out
- Called into with Israel
- Desire for Spiritual Food (1 Peter 2:2) (We are aksed to step in with the Spirit)
Characteristic of a different People
- Priests (This is our Sanctity)
- Royal ( This is our Dignity) - and ImagoDei
- Build on Christ (This is our Dependency)
- Build with one another (This is the reason for our Interdependency)
How Should we live
- Value your salvation
- Desire the Holy Spirit and spiritual discipleship
- Proclaim (Share, Exalt, Magnify)
- God who loves
- God who calls
- God who preserves
- God who gifts his Spirit
- God who tabernacles
- God who builds us in and into
Cross References
Exodus 19:5
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
Exodus 19:6
And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites."
Deuteronomy 4:20
Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession, above all peoples on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 10:15
Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.
Deuteronomy 14:2
for you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 26:18
And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,
Deuteronomy 26:19
that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God as He promised.
1 Samuel 12:22
Indeed, for the sake of His great name the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
Psalm 118:27
The LORD is God and has made His light shine upon us. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
Psalm 135:4
For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.
Isaiah 43:20
The animals of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.
Isaiah 43:21
The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.
Isaiah 61:6
But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches.
Isaiah 62:12
And they will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of The LORD; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
Isaiah 66:21
And I will select some of them as priests and Levites," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 13:11
For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
Malachi 3:17
"They will be Mine," says the LORD of Hosts, "on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
Titus 2:14
He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
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