1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 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.”
This is speaking to those of us who are believing in Jesus Christ, who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him. We are those who, by the Spirit, have put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and who have been renewed in the spirit of our minds, and who have put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. And we are those who are to be walking no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
[Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 4:17-24; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26]
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).
We are God’s chosen people. We are his holy nation, which is not a physical nation but a spiritual nation of people. And to be holy means to be set apart from the world, to be different from the world because we are being made into the likeness of the character of Christ. For Jesus called us out of the world in the sense that we are not to be partakers of the character of the world and all its sinful trappings and fleshly desires. Yet he sends us out into the world to share the truth of the gospel of Christ and to love the people of the world in like manner as he loved the people of the world.
We are not only God’s chosen people, but we are now his possession. He owns us, so he is to be our Lord and Master. No longer should we be in control over our lives, making all the decisions for ourselves for how we are going to live our lives and for what we are going to do each day. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
And we are to be those who are actively and deliberately proclaiming the excellencies of God/Christ who called us out of darkness (sin) into his wonderful light (purity, righteousness, holiness, godliness, obedience). For we are called, too, to open spiritually blinded eyes, “so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in” Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18). For this is the gospel message.
So, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to be out in the world in person or on the internet acting just like the world, telling all the same stories, laughing at all the same jokes, watching all the same videos, and doing and saying all the same things that the ungodly do and say. If you are on the internet, especially on social media, be sharing the gospel with people, but make sure you are sharing the whole counsel of God and not some diluted and altered gospel which is not the gospel, for it appeases human flesh.
Make certain that the gospel you are sharing is the one that teaches that we are God’s called out ones, and that we are not to be like the world, and that we are God’s possession and he owns us and so he is the one who should be directing our lives. Make certain you are telling people that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness and that we must turn from our sins to follow Jesus in obedience or we do not have salvation from sin and we will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
All throughout the New Testament, we who profess faith in Jesus Christ are being instructed and exhorted (a holy urging) to live as strangers on this earth, to not be partakers of the sinful pleasures this world has to offer us. For we are to be those who are abstaining from the sinful passions of the flesh which absolutely do wage war against our souls. So, we are not to be liars, thieves, adulterers, the sexually immoral, idolaters, and drunkards, etc. But we are to be holy, honest, morally pure, faithful and trustworthy.
For we don’t share the gospel of Christ with just our lips. We share the gospel with people by how we live our lives as examples of what it means to be God’s chosen people and his possession and his called out ones and his holy people. Now this is not saying that we have to be absolutely perfect (1 John 2:1-2), but also we are never to use lack of perfection as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin and defiance against our Lord and against his commands. Yet many professing Christians live just like that.
For, if we walk in sin, if sin is what we practice, and if righteousness, godliness, holiness, and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, the Scriptures are very clear that we will not inherit eternal life with God, for we don’t know God, he doesn’t know us, we are not born of God, but we are still of the devil. And regardless of what we profess with our lips, many are going to hear Jesus say on the day of judgment, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” So, please take this to heart.
But for those of us who are our Lord’s called out ones, who are following Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands, who are living holy lives pleasing to the Lord, and who are not living in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord, we have the hope of salvation and of eternal life with God. But we must continue in those walks of faith steadfast in faith until the very end of time. For this is what the Scriptures teach us.
[Lu 9:23-26; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:26-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Jn 15:1-11; Matt 7:21-23; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15; Matt 24:9-14; Rom 8:24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6,14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 2:24-25]
My Lord, What a Morning
Spiritual, United States, 18th or 19th Century
My Lord, what a morning!
My Lord, what a morning!
Oh, my Lord, what a morning
when the stars begin to fall.
Oh, you will hear the trumpet sound
to wake the nations underground,
Looking to my Lord's right hand
when the stars begin to fall.
Oh, you will see my Jesus come,
His glory shining like the sun,
Looking to my Lord's right hand
When the stars begin to fall.
Oh, you will hear all Christians shout,
'Cause there's a new day come about,
Looking to my Lord's right hand
When the stars begin to fall
My Lord, what a morning!
My Lord, what a morning!
Oh, my Lord, what a morning
when the stars begin to fall.
[1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Revelation 6:12-14]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YIYxwnqcTM
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