Growing Out
“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
Justin Bieber, the teenage sensation of the early 21st century, sings with all his heart that all he wants is “Someone To Love,” and, biblically, he gets it right. We are built to serve, to love, to show God’s kindness to others.
In short, as dearly loved children of God, we are called to treat others increasingly how God, in Christ, treats us.
However, as simple and true and attractive as that call to love sounds in theory, we must also acknowledge how costly it can be to grow outside of ourselves and our comforts and our conveniences. Finding somebody to love is costly.
We are scared of the cost, the inconvenience, and the overwhelming potential of being indebted. Therefore, we often find ourselves at the crossroads of finding somebody to love and counting the cost. How do we navigate the tension, the impasse of that crossroads?
1 Peter 2: 9-10 gives us timely wisdom and encouragement for navigating the intersection of God’s call and our counting the cost of loving others in a truly gracious and sacrificial way. Peter reminds us that our identity is people, who without the intervening and initiating grace of God, would still be merciless people.
He reasons that without God’s choosing us to be in his family, we would still be a people without an identity immersed in darkness. And Peter belabors those truths in his letter to underscore the fact that the gospel of God’s free grace and mercy is never an end in itself. His people have been blessed to bless again, comforted to comfort again, graced with mercy to grace others with the same mercy received from his hand.
What is the motivation to find somebody to love and willingly endure the cost of loving them? 1 Peter 2:9-10 reminds us mercy is never an experience on the margins of your life or a passively consumed gift. The Gospel is an interactive experience.
We have been given the gift of repentance, faith, and salvation so that we may fulfill the glory of our calling to extend the same gift to others.
Grace leads to grace. Mercy leads to mercy. Verse 10 lays it out rather plainly: Jesus bought with his own precious blood so that we can proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. God calls us to treat others as we have been treated, to put hands, feet, a face, and a heart to love for others because God treats us that way.
Today you will stand at the crossroads of God’s call “to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you of darkness into marvelous light” and the reality that such a call is demanding and filled with friction.
What will motivate you to fulfill the call of God? The same grace of God that saved you will motivate and equip you to be the person of mercy God chose you to be!