“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV)

There is a trend amongst some Christians to emphasise that they are special – that they in particular are special, that God has specially selected them. What most don’t realise is that if everyone has this particular ‘special-ness’ then no one is really special. But there is a sense in which we are special.

It isn’t that we are special amongst all other Christians but that all Christians are special. We are all special because, as Christians, we are God’s people. That doesn’t make us any more special than any other Christian but, like Israel was God’s special nation, we are God’s Israel today and therefore are special to him (see Romans 11).

We are a chosen people. Again, it isn’t that God specially chose me to be a Christian but that God chose Christians to be his people, the same as he chose Israel in times past to be his nation out of all the other nations. God chose Christians so we need to be sure we are one of his people.

We are a royal priesthood. Sometimes we don’t realise what it is that we have in Jesus. Priests have direct access to God without going through another person. Israel had to offer their sacrifices through the priests, who were all descendants of Aaron. Through Jesus we don’t go through anyone but him to have access to God. There isn’t to be a special group of priests – we are all priests. What a privilege to have direct access to God!

Christians are God’s special possession. Some of the early English translations translated this with the word ‘peculiar’. Sadly this word has changed primary meanings and some have emphasised the need to be strange (which is the primary meaning today). The word peculiar simply meant (and is the secondary definition in the New Oxford English Dictionary) “particular; special; belonging exclusively to”. As Christians we belong exclusively to God – we are his special possession.

Why does God consider Christians special? So that we “may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”. We are God’s people so we can tell others what we have in Jesus – that because of him we have left sin and now live for him, living the best life possible. We have now received mercy – our sins have been forgiven because of Jesus. Because of this we can now be the people of God. How should this be reflected in our lives?

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)

Because we now belong to God he has a say in how we live our lives. We need to live our lives turning our back on sin, on our former way of life. We need to live such good lives that when those around us who are not Christians accuse us of doing something wrong, our lives will contradict their accusations.

We must remember who we are at all times because of Jesus: “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.” We are all of this to help lead others to have what we have in him.

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Readings for next week: 1 Peter 1-5; John 1-3