1 Peter 2:10
10 Which [ho] in time past [pote] were not [ou] a people [laos], but [de] are now [nun] the people [laos] of God [theos]: which [ho] had [eleeo] not [ou] obtained mercy [eleeo], but [de] now [nun] have obtained mercy [eleeo].
KJV-Interlinear
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. NASB
Peter is drawing his
remarks from Hosea.
Hos. 1:10
10 Yet the number of
the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured
or numbered; And it will come about that, in the place Where it is said to
them, You are not My people, It will be said to them, You are the sons of
the living God. NASB
Hos. 2:23
23 And I will sow her
for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained
compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My
people!' And they will say, 'Thou art my God!' NASB
There always comes a
time in life when you should look at life and become grateful for all that you
are and all that you have.Whether you have
a little or a lot, whether you are somebody or nobody, is irrelevant.
In the spiritual realm,
which is the only truth and reality that exists, there are only two types of
people believers and unbelievers.
Unbelievers have no
value whatsoever.Like garbage tossed
out, buried, burned, or otherwise discarded as useless and of which not even
the bums of the street are interested, so too, unbelievers are useless and
worthless.
Their destiny is the
Lake of Fire, and to that end, they have no value.
Believers, on the other
hand, have enjoyed the highest value that can exist. They are the family of God, and heirs to the
new universe and heaven to come.
And so Peter here
teaches us, that we were once all unbelievers, and without value. But now as believers in Christ, we possess
infinite value.And by the way, becoming
a believer is available to everyone.No one
is excluded, except by their own refusal to believe in Christ. Therefore, gratitude is in order.
Prior to our faith, we
were the recipients of no mercy, and that means the mercy of Salvation.
On this earth, everyone
participates in common grace, which makes this planet habitable for humanity,
but as for mercy, that, is reserved for believers only. And we can add one more thing to this
concept, as we studied in James recently, all believers are recipients of spiritual
grace, but mature believers become recipients for greater grace. The grace of the mature spiritual life.
As for unbelievers,
they participate in the common grace principles of life, but only because those
principles were made available specifically for believers. Unbelievers only
receive grace because they happen to live concurrently with believers. We call that grace by association.
The Tribulation will be
an excellent example of the grace that unbelievers will receive, when most
believers are gone.Namely, they will almost
exterminate humanity.
But anyway, your life
was once a worthless life.You had no
future, no value, nothing.But, once you
believed in Christ, all of that changed dramatically. As a believer in Christ, your value and your
blessings increased infinitely, as compared to an unbeliever. And, as a mature believer, your value and
your blessings will increase infinitely again.
So, no matter what your
circumstances, you have something to be grateful to God for. No matter what your circumstances, worldly
circumstances that is, you have nothing.
Only in doctrine do you become a valuable person with meaning and
purpose.
In every other aspect
of life (apart from doctrine), no matter how hard you try, you will never find
meaning or purpose for yourself.Never!