“It’s Not About How Good We Are”
“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.” (1 Peter 2:9-10, English Standard Version)
Do you sometimes feel like a nobody who needs mercy but doesn’t necessarily qualify for it? Well, you’re not as alone as you might think you are.
The author of the letter we know as 1 Peter in the New Testament reminds these Christ-followers who they were and who they are. Peter is not so much impressed with the people to whom he is writing, as he is impressed with what God had done and was continuing to do in their lives. He reminds them that they were, in fact, nobodies who had not received mercy. But God had turned them into somebodies who could and did receive mercy.
And everybody needs mercy, don’t we? And everybody needs to feel that we are somebody.
Let me be very frank. I’ve been around Christians for a very long time. Christians are not inherently nice or interesting or impressive. What we are is forgiven. And maybe that’s enough.
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