An Exposition Of 1 Peter, Part 11: A Peculiar People

An Exposition of 1 Peter, Part 11: A Peculiar People

1 Peter 2:9-10

Introduction

We continue in our study of first Peter today. In the last passage we were reminded of the perils of unbelief. This is true within the church as well as without. Peter warned the believers that rejecting Jesus would cause one to stumble badly. It also served to remind us that we have an obligation to warn those outside the church, the very people who reject us when we became Christians.

Having dealt with this, Peter goes back to the theme of the preciousness of being a Christian, something he does throughout the epistle. It is a style similar to that of the Book of Hebrews which intersperses warnings to the believers not to fall away between sections of teaching material. 1 John also has this spiral structure. In modern times, we tend to dislike repetitions, especially in written discourses. It is good to remember that many of the members of the churches were illiterate, this is why there was an office of reader in the church. In spoken speech, there is no rewind button or the means of going back to a previous page. So repeating the main points serves to amplify and explain what Peter wants them to understand. One of these things is that the Christians are valued by God, even if they are valueless to those outside the church. Peter reminds the church that they must undergo suffering for a little while so that they might be refined and approved. Peter reminds them that the suffering and rejection they are suffering is not punishment from God for wrongdoing. Peter reminds us of the work of evangelism as we noted. So, if Peter finds it necessary to refresh his hearers about these things, so shall I.

Exposition of the Text

But You are a chosen race — In the previous passage, Peter had described the fall of those who refused to believe. Israel refused to believe in Jesus and had stumbled. The Jews in the Old Testament were known as “The Chosen People.” Yahweh had chosen them for His purposes. Part of this purpose is that Israel might serve as a witness to the other nations. For example, we read in Isaiah 60:1-3:

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Isaiah 60:1–3 NKJV

Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the Lord will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you.

The Gentiles shall come to your light,

And kings to the brightness of your rising.

The message Israel was to bring to the Gentiles (other nations) served two purposes. The first was a judgment against the evil practices and idolatry of the Gentiles. The other was a call to repentance and to believe in Yahweh, the God of Israel. the life Israel lived was to testify of the goodness and grace of the LORD and draw the Gentiles in. Although there were Israelites who took this call seriously, the nation as a whole failed to live up to expectations. Instead of being light, Israel itself stumbled into the same darkness which characterized the other nations.

So now Peter applies the epithet “Chosen People” to address the churches to whom he was writing. We don’t know the ethnic makeup of the churches in these areas, but God wanted a church composed of both Jews and Gentiles. It is the church which now is tasked to be a witness both to Israel as well as to all the other nations.

The church is a chosen race. Although the word can also be translated “generation”, the choice I have made to translate the Greek “genos” as race is made in the light of our current world situation. It seems that the term “racist” is thrown around as a means to smear people and to assert one’s moral superiority. Racism in which one promotes their ethnicity as superior to other ethnicities is certainly wrong. It is wrong in the world. but more importantly, it is biblically evil. The net result of racism and the corollary race-baiting is to cause division and multiply hate. So how does “chosen race” being applied to Christians sound to those outside the church? We recognize that the church is to be composed of people from every race, color, and ethnicity. the church is not to discriminate between one ethnicity or another. It is not to discriminate based upon economic status, or whether one is male or female. It is a race composed of all the races of the world. This should be reflected in our local congregations as well as the church at large. We must not give ammunition to the enemy to call us out on this matter.