Your New Job Description

1 Peter 2:9–10

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Verses 9 and 10 are basically the culmination of the first 12 verses of 1 Peter 2.

Your identity has been radically changed by Jesus, and part of that new identity is a new purpose for your life!

No longer are you alone and lost. No longer are you condemned for your sin.

Now you are redeemed!!

You have received mercy!

You are part of God’s people forever and ever—unchangeably, irrevocably, forever!

Who did this?

Jesus Christ, in all His excellence, who brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light by His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to reign at the right hand of God the Father, and His promise to come again to judge the living and the dead.

This is amazing news!

If that is the power and sacrifice that have given us this new identity, what can shake us? Who can tell us we are not God’s chosen people, His own possession?

But part of that new identity is also your new job, your new role, your new purpose.

No longer are you just going through the motions of life as a friend, coworker, spouse, parent, neighbor, or child.

Now, in every one of those relationships, you are a priest of Jesus Christ.

I know the word priest is vague and not common in our vocabulary. An easy way to understand a priest is someone who belongs fully to God and represents Him to others.

A priest lives close to God and helps others see Him.

So, as much as you are a parent, a spouse, a neighbor, or a coworker, you first belong to God before anything or anyone else.

And you show who God is to all those around you with your words and actions.

Always both.

Never only words and never only actions.

So go out today thinking of yourself as a priest of Jesus Christ, with those guiding principles in mind.

That is how Peter calls us to live in these verses.