Read with Me
1 Peter 2:10-12 (HCSB)
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.
Listen with Me
The people to whom Peter is writing, the people of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1:1), were predominantly gentiles. And although Peter initially had a problem with understanding that Jesus came to save the gentiles as well as the Jews, his calling to the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) had persuaded him.
Now Peter demonstrates that understanding. Before the gospel began to spread all around the Roman Empire and across the globe, the Gentiles were not a people. They were just individuals working their way through what often seemed like a pointless life.
But now that they had received the gospel, now that they had believed in Jesus and had begun to live for Him, they had become a part of something much larger than themselves or their own family group. They had been grafted into the people of God’s kingdom. Before, they had lived their lives under God’s judgment for their sins and their idolatry. But now, they had received mercy and were living under God’s grace.
It was with that understanding that Peter urged his readers to turn away from the sins which had imprisoned them for so long. They were no longer a part of the pagan world in which they lived and worked, but instead had become “strangers and temporary residents” in that culture. They had been transformed by the forgiveness of Jesus and by the renewing of their minds by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:1-2).
Now, instead of merely slogging through their lives, they had been given a new mission: to live as the people of God, emissaries of God’s kingdom, commissioned to share the path to life with everyone around them. And as such, they were to live lives of such purity and holiness that those entrenched in the world system and the pagan religions, who would naturally push back against the message of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) will not only have no ability to accuse them of wrong, but will also be powerfully drawn to the truth they see lived out each day by those disciples.
Pray with Me
Father, thank You for this word today. It is easy to get so caught up in just living our lives that we forget that we have been saved for a purpose. Even though heaven is our final destination, we live here in this world now by Your grace as strangers and temporary residents. And we live here in Your power so that we can be effective emissaries of your kingdom to all those around us. We truly are on assignment for You, expected to do the work You have given us, making strides each day to complete the great work of making disciples of all nations, including those we meet where we live, where we work, and where we shop. Help me, Lord, to live my life intentionally on duty for You every day. Amen.