1 Peter 2:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 2:9

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‘But ye are a chosen generation.’ The second great benefit is status. Modern versions abandon the word ‘generation’ and go for synonyms, but ‘generation’ is a good word. The picture is of a patriarch of old and his first generation of children. He trains them personally, and they are his family in the wider community. You are in the family of God; you are given status: the status of royalty, more than human earthly royalty. You are not made God; you are not infused with divine properties, but you are drawn into his intimate family of saved human beings. Think back to ancient times to a prosperous family with a lot of land which produced great crops, and was a force for benevolence in the area, and perhaps the head of the family was a magistrate in the city gates. In ancient times it was quite something to be a member of that family with its privileges and with its influence. You are a chosen generation: immediate family of God.A third heading: ‘a royal priesthood.’ We have seen the word priesthood before in this chapter. A priest is one who represents God to man, and represents man to God. A priest is one who stands between. He proclaims the message of God to human beings, and he pleads to God for human beings. He has a two-way ministry. You are a royal priesthood, directly in touch with the Father, working for him: a priesthood of all believers. We are not Jewish priests; neither are we priests of some idol cult. We are the priests of Christ to make him known and to call upon him for the salvation of others.Fourthly, ‘a holy nation.’ Before conversion you were nomads, wandering. You were on your own. Of course, you were in a family, you were in a community, but very largely you lived for yourself. You lived by your wits. You asked, ‘What do people think of me? How do I appear? How will I get on? How much money will I earn? Are they are acting against me?’ You were an individual, and you fought your corner all the time. But now you are no longer just an individual. You are an individual before God, and you have your own personal walk and relationship with him as a Christian, but you’re also a member of God’s people. God has determined that a company of people called a church in any particular community should be his representatives. ‘A peculiar people.’ That's a strange word, ‘peculiar’. The King James translators were choosing a word which meant, roughly speaking, a special people. It translates a difficult Greek term which essentially means ‘a purchased people’, and purchased as a special possession, a special purchase. Maybe you have all kinds of expenses, but there's one thing that you need as a family, and that's currently your special purchase which you’re saving for. God had his mind on millions of people who he would save from there folly and from their sin, and Christ would pay for them and suffer and die for them, and they would be his treasured special possession. Is he going to let you down? Of course, not. You are his treasured and special possession which he has gone to great lengths to purchase for himself. Aren’t you going to serve him with all your heart? Don't you feel you owe him everything? We are in this world, we are to be good citizens, Peter will soon be teaching us this, but we are not of this world and we are not to be sharing its tastes and its values.Sixthly, he describes our function and our commission: ‘That you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you.’ An alternative word to ‘praises’ is ‘virtues’. The modern versions go for a word like ‘excellences’; that’s good. Our function, our commission, our calling is to show forth his virtues. That doesn't only mean speaking about him; it means in our lives, in our reactions to aggravation, and to difficulties, and to hostility. We are saying to people around us, ‘He has changed me, and I desire to show forth the excellences that he has put within me.’ ‘Marvellous light’, it is light, which you gaze at. Marvellous means that you marvel at it; you study it. By the work of the Spirit, it will arrest the attention of the hearers and speak to them of Christ and bring people to him.

Application

If you move away to another location and you find a church – first of all, it must be a church where the truth is taught – but make sure you go to a church which is evangelistic, which is making known the Saviour, where the preacher believes in preaching the gospel, where the people believe in knocking the doors and bringing in the children and operating Sunday School and reaching the neighbourhood, because this is our purpose and a church that won’t do this, isn’t this kind of church, however sound it is.

Are we representing God to man? In our family, in our marriage? It works both ways: husband to wife; wife to husband. Do you say, ‘Small as I am, I represent God to my wife; I represent God to my husband; I represent God to my children’? My behaviour must always recognise that. I'm a representative of my heavenly Father, and I pray for those to whom I represent God, and I plead with God on their behalf. We often say every act of witness must be accompanied by a prayer. Otherwise you're not exercising that two-way priesthood. Your representing God to man, but you're not representing man to God in petition, in intercession, in prayer. You’re a priest: it must be both ways.

As members of a holy nation you have your own language, the language of faith with fellow Christians. It's Bible language. You can talk about doctrines; you can talk about Christ. You can talk about your spiritual experiences. The worldling does know what you're talking about. He doesn't have this language. As a member of that church, there is order which God has given: certain offices to proclaim the word, to exercise unity and bring everyone together in the service of the Lord. That’s a difficulty today, because today's culture is highly individualistic and democratic. Well, we like democracy; it’s a good thing, but it can be overdone. In the pandemic of just a few years ago the question arose: How should a church conduct itself? Our forebears would say that, so long as there isn’t singling out or persecution, we have to obey the civil magistrate if something is being enacted for the good of all. So yes, we observe lockdown all the rest of it. But here and there, there will be a discordant voice and an individual will say, ‘Just a minute; you’re reading from Romans and from the apostle Peter and various other people in the Scripture, giving direction, and from Christ, about our attitude to civil authorities. But shouldn’t we discuss this? Shouldn’t we vote about this?’, and suddenly you find this individualism and freedom of choice to an extreme degree is coming into the church. That’s something to be watched today.

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1 Peter 2:9 Commentary and Bible Study