1 Peter 2:9-17

1 Peter 2:9-17 … This is a particularly wonderful portion of 1 Peter. He’s addressing believers who want to grow (“… crave pure spiritual milk [of the word],” 2:2), and calls them (v.9) “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” He’s not talking about Jews necessarily, but all believers, including Jews, from every nation. 1 Peter 2:10 is instructive because the Jews were such an exclusive nation; but believers, who were not a nation at all, are now the people of God. We’re reminded (and we need to be reminded) that we’re aliens and strangers, just passing through this mortal existence, on our way to our eternal home. We’re also reminded that character and behavior in the community are important aspects of Christianity. Many of us perhaps have had the experience of someone “discovering” our Christian faith and saying: “I didn’t know you were a Christian!” Frankly, if that occurs, we should be chastised by it. As verse 17 says, the public at large ought to be able to tell we are Christians by our love.