◆We the People of God

1 Peter 2:9-10

9 June 2024

 

Today we will read 1 Peter 2:9 and 10. Last week, we read verses 3 through 10 under the title “What to do with this stone?” In particular, we considered the question, “What will you do with Jesus Christ, who is likened to a stone rejected by men, but is the cornerstone?” What is presented in today’s scriptures is the identity of the Christian. It is the identity of the person who has confessed Christ, knowing this stone to be my stone, my Savior. Who am I? In everyday life, we have a social identity, an ethnic identity, and an identity of who we think we are. What is being referred to here is identity in terms of the relationship with God. What is God to me and who am I to God? Four things are mentioned. The four are “the chosen people,” “priests of the royal line,” “the holy nation,” and “the people who belong to God. I would like to read through each of these. The first thing mentioned is that we are a chosen people. Chosen people. We have not chosen God, but God has chosen us. Jesus said in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” Why did He choose you? Why me? God’s standard of choice seems to have been consistent since Old Testament times. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were the chosen people. This was also God’s unilateral choice. Why Israel? Deuteronomy 7:6-8 says as follows. “You are the holy people of the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you from among all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his treasured people. The LORD has chosen you with a tender heart, not because you are more numerous than any other people. You were poorer than any other people. But because of His love for you, because He kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and delivered you from the house of slavery under the rule of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” The Israelites were few in number and poor. It means that they had no special excellence or strength. But God chose them because of His love for them. And that love became an action. In other words, they were delivered from slavery. But we must be careful that it does not mean that being small or weak is what satisfies God. The most important part of this sentence is “because He kept the oath He swore to your fathers.” These ancestors refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham was a Gentile. He was a worshipper of the Moon God. God revealed Himself to this man Abraham, a man who had nothing to do with God, and told him to leave the land where he lived and go where God showed him. In other words, he was told to trust and follow God. And he obeyed in faith to the words that were ambiguous and unclear. God was pleased with his faith and responded. He promised to bless his descendants. God did not forget that promise. And whether Israel was a wonderful people or an ordinary people, God made them His treasured people because of that promise. We are not Israelites, but we have been made God’s chosen people according to the same principle. By the same principle, I mean that wealth, status, talent, family background, and other such things that may have meaning in this world are meaningless to God’s election. Rather, it seems that in every age, the weak and the poor are more likely to be chosen by God. This is probably because they have nothing else to rely on and do not have many things to throw away. However, as I mentioned earlier, being weak, poor, and having nothing noteworthy is not the condition. Like Abraham, the foundation is to believe in God’s words, words that cannot be accepted without putting aside our pride, and to go beyond the point of using God to our own benefit, thinking that if we believe in God, many good things will happen to us. What is that word? It is Jesus Christ, who is referred to as “the Word” in John 1. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who left heaven to be born as a man on earth through the virgin Mary, who is 100% God and 100% man who lived in society, communicated with people, and preached the gospel as the one sent by God. The gospel that God loves you, you need to be judged because of your sin, but Christ, as the Son of God, bore the judgment, and He died as it is said. But having triumphed over death, He rose again on the third day as a sign that the judgment is effective and has already been done, and whoever knows this and agrees that it is so, whoever applies it to himself, that person will be the people of God. God’s people Israel were spoken of as God’s treasured people. We, too, have been chosen and made God’s treasured people. We must remember that. There are those who speak ill of God’s treasure, saying, “Oh no, not me. I am nothing. I can’t do it.” It is a sin for a Christian to be negative, both in social life and in church life. Because it is arrogance. It is also rude. We do not belittle what our neighbor values. So let us first acknowledge to ourselves this identity, that we are God’s chosen people of treasure. For there is a danger in not doing so. The danger is that those who will not admit it to themselves will not admit it to others. It is said that one can love others only as much as one loves oneself, and one can acknowledge others only as much as one acknowledges oneself. Let us live proclaiming, “I am, we are, the chosen people.

 

Translation based on DeepL (www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)) with modifications.

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