God's Culture

10 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 2:10

I like to tell people I’m Italian. I’m half Italian. But like many people, I love to trade on the culture. Italian food, Italian history and so on. We all want a people to belong to.

Peter reminds us that if you are a Christian, you have a people to belong to. He goes so far to say that (similar to Tuesday), to be outside of God’s people is to be not a people.

But let’s go on the positive side. When you trust in Jesus, you have a people, a culture and a history that you belong to. Your history stretches back through the Saints of many thousands of years. Your culture is good, you are a part of the people who changed the world. And your people are everywhere.

What’s the point? God has saved you into a people and you are not alone. Instead, you are a part of something bigger than yourself and wonderful. This is your identity that you received in the mercy of Christ.

But that’s a challenge to us too. Instead of ethnicities, many of us draw our identity from sub-cultures. Think surfer, gamer, mum etc. But, God has saved us to find the centre of our identity in being his people.

Today:

• Do you draw some of your identity from an ethnicity or culture?
• Do you see yourself first and foremost as one of God’s people?
• What would that change about how you describe yourself?

Pray:

• Praise the Father that he has made us into his people.
• Give thanks for Jesus who is our King.
• Ask God for His Holy Spirit to help you and others make being God’s people at the centre of your identity.