Think, Act, Be, Day 3- 1 Peter 2:4-10
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.
After visiting Germany in the early 1990’s, I realized the power of faith in times of oppression. Behind the old “iron curtain,” the faith of German Christians was vibrant, bold, and faithful. Suddenly, the Christians who languished under the cloud of communism were free to worship openly and evangelistically to others. Ukranian dissident Irina Ratushinskaya once said that for former communists, God’s freedom was a gift during political oppression. For Western Christians, freedom was a test to see if they would remain faithful when we have not been coerced. What holds us accountable to Jesus? We discover our new identity—we are citizens of God’s kingdom. Our loyalty is primarily not of this world. Once we were on our own, lost, and alone. But now God has given us a new identity and constituted a new people. The church is God’s holy nation. It’s a gift and a test.
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”
8 and
“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy