But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called.
We’re set apart as beloved children of the most high
It seems a new word is in order for the new year. I look to my husband when November rolls around to ask him what He thinks the theme, the challenge, the direction he sees our family will be going into for the next year. It was synchronicity when he picked peculiar, a word that has been pronounced in our minds. I even put together 11 meditations and prayers for my subscribers and shared them last month.
Why Peculiar?
Jesus didn’t fit into the world from the moment he was born. There was no room in the inn for Him.
Now, as children of the King, we don’t fit into this world either.
Attempts are made to fit in, however. We know the watered down gospel, the seeker-friendly church, and a Christ made in the image of man are marks of that quest to remain indistinguishable in the world. These are sordid attempts to fit in a world that rejects the Christ of the Bible.
But we are called to live like a salmon swimming upstream. As we read in 1 Peter 2:9, we’re called to be a separate, distinguished, peculiar:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called.
Our minds ought to always strive to think more Christ-like. Our energy and endurance in the race should go against the current stream of the age. For we are set apart as beloved children of the most High. We’re a peculiar people. We aren’t cookie cutter copies of the same ole life we once lived before the saving grace of Jesus.
Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash
As such peculiar people, we distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world. We hate sin because God hates it. We rightly divide the truth because God is truth. We stand on conviction and live out our faith because God sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. We are called out from among them. We are repulsed by the world’s philosophies. We don’t need to pursue acceptance from the world but rather from God.
We are distinct because He is distinct. He’s called us out of the darkness that once covered our eyes and now we are in His marvelous light, adopting us into His family as joint heirs with Jesus. We belong to Him now and are a peculiar people.
So true. I like how you draw out that we take on the mind of Christ and our reason for not liking sin is because He doesn’t. If we are truly transforming and being sanctified, we should “put on” His attributes and His reasons. Blessings!
Thank you, Bonnie! Many are paralyzed, it seems, to stay silent and to define God in man’s image. They build their theology in light of what they expect God to be like: themselves.
However, we bear the cross daily and thus live out our faith in direct response to God’s revelation of himself in Christ hanging on the cross.
God calls us to consecrate ourselves and set ourselves apart from the world. He cannot use us to impact the world if we look just like them. Thank you for your beautiful post!
Thank you, Donna, for reflecting on this. Christianity, sadly, is becoming more unrecognizable by the season. I see it counterfeited to be made more palatable to the masses, which bears a very strange fruit. The gospel as the good news for a fallen world in need of redemption, Christ as the bearer of our sins doesn’t sound pleasant to the masses. It doesn’t appeal to the frivolous trends of the day. We were commissioned to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” In doing so we will not win the admiration of the world–and that is a huge distinction.
Standing on faith and living out our convictions is definitely what makes us peculiar, it also makes us that light that the darkened world needs to see! Comforting thoughts!
Thank you Carol, for your reply. So glad the Lord strengthens the faith!
Erendira, I remember vividly sitting in a small group discussion years ago and hearing for the first time (or at least the first time it struck me) that as a Christian I wasn’t supposed to fit in! I’d always felt out of synche, off kilter, out of place…..and I learned that’s exactly how I am to be in this world! What a relief and a burden lifted! In a time where it seems the world wants us all to think the same and look the same, your message is an important one!!! Thanks for sharing it! Cindy Wilkins visiting from the #fmf Face Book page
Yes, Cindy, that is just what we are to be in this world: separate. We should try to be more Christ-like, not world like, people pleasers. There’s enough groupthink and to live biblically truly is peculiar. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
[…] The new year continues to shift my focus to the word I elected to live out this year: peculiar. […]
[…] The new year continues to shift my focus to the word I elected to live out this year: peculiar. […]