1 Peter 2:9
I recently said that I would write about 1 Peter 2:9. It reads:
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:9)
What does this actually mean? Does it apply to us?
I have touched on some of these already in prior posts. but I will break down 1 Peter 2:9.
The first part says that we are a chose generation… I wrote in my post “The Lord IS my Shepherd” from verse 5 that we are all chosen…
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5)
If we ARE all anointed, we are all chosen for greatness. EACH OF US HAS BEEN CALLED FOR GREATNESS. This doesn’t mean that it would fall in our laps, we will have to choose… IT IS OUR CHOICE TO BE CHOSEN FOR GREATNESS… No one can force it upon you, just encourage… No one can say you are great, if you don’t even believe it, and if they say you are great, it is not even a result of your greatness. You must believe you are great, before you will ever believe it, when someone else says it about you… I say it from experience… No one can make you believe that you great, if you are to stubborn to believe it….
The 1 Peter 2:9 goes on to say that we are a royal priesthood. I will for this basically take the portion I wrote in my post “Knowledge, Who needs it?“:
“What does it mean to be a priest? I found that:
“Those who could not trace their lines back were Levites. Their duties were outside the court of the priests: they were involved with Temple music, performed various physical and religious services for the Temple, and served as Temple guards. It was such a group of Levites who came to arrest Jesus (Mt. 26:47) and later the apostles (Acts 4:1-3).
…The rest of the year they ministered throughout the land in the areas in which they lived. (will state the rest now)
Their duties included making the sacrifices and performing the ritual of the sanctuary, burning the incense along with their intercession in the Holy Place, and teaching the people the laws and the ritual (Deut. 33:9,10; Mal. 2:7).“ (https://bible.org/seriespage/priests)
According to this, your priests are important because they prepare the Holy Place for those around. These are the guys that would prepare for the work that GOD WILL DO… They also taught the laws, nowadays it would be to teach Love…. God did say: Love the Lord your God with everything and Love your neighbor as yourself… These are basically the only commands we have… The rest will flow from this…
Priests did not work in the temple every day of their lives… they would be rotated to work in the temple, and also at special occasions… But many a time they would be going to the world teaching people and searching for more OF WHO GOD IS, so they can teach the truth to others…”
1 Peter 2:9 follows to say that we are a Holy Nation… But how? We are sinners, are we not? It doesn’t make any sense…
Yes, that would be true… We are sinners and nothing we can ever do, can get us in heaven, not even paying to get your sins forgiven, confessing your sins to a priest or even saying that you are christian…
Isaiah 64:6 basically says nothing we can do can ever cleanse us from unrighteousness:
“All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6 CSB)
Being christian isn’t a word to be spoken… It is a matter of power….(I will in the future write about the Power of God) As stated in 1 Corinthians 4:20:
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20 CSB)
Being a Holy Nation doesn’t mean we say we are christian, but by striving to be more like God… striving to be PERFECT AS GOD IS PERFECT… It doesn’t mean we will not mess us, we are bound to mess up, We are not getting marks for just the final answer, WE GET MARKS FOR GLORIFYING GOD, And representing Him daily, even if we mess up at one point, it doesn’t determine our destiny, as doing good deeds also doesn’t determine our destiny.
Going back to 1 Peter 2:9 stating that we are God’s special possession… Why would God see us as HIS special possession? This is not due to us being angels… But because He created us in HIS OWN IMAGE… He didn’t just create the amoeba and say “Evolve”… Yeah can you imagine this change?
Can you imagine this transformation? From a single cellular being to a multi-cellular person we are today? Have you ever looked at what your body has to do simultaneously? Heart, lungs, etc all working together to keep you alive, and people think evolution is true? We are made in the image of God…
Now for the last part of 1 Peter 2:9. This says that we should give God praises… Why? Maybe because He is the only reason that we have to live, a reason to go on and make the best of our life, and even that we breathe, by His choice. Maybe we should praise Him because He sacrificed the most just to save us from total destruction. We should praise Him because HE IS GOD, and that is all the reason in the world we need to praise HIM.
You are worth more than you would ever believe, and GOD LOVES YOU. You are amazing.
References:
The Lord is my Shepherd
Knowledge, Who needs it?