God’s People to Declare God’s Praises

“But you all are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, God’s special possession, so that all of you may declare the PRAISES of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the PEOPLE OF GOD.  Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  1 Peter 2:9 & 10

This verse is a wonderful comfort to many people, and for good reason.  How marvelous is it to think that God cares for us so much that we are “God’s special possession!”  Yet that is not the end of the verse.  Often we like to know that we are special to God, and then we move on with our lives.  Isn’t it nice to know that God chose you, and that God sees you as somehow royal?  It is!

But God chose us for a purpose.  As a royal priesthood we are chosen to be God’s representatives here and now.  What are we called to do?  “Declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.”  Just as Peter and the believers declared the wonders of God to the multitudes at Pentecost so we to are to give witness to the great acts of God by our very lives.