Charles Spurgeon Commentary 1 Peter 2:9

"But ye are a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God`s] own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:" — 1 Peter 2:9 (ASV)

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;

These are wonderful epithets that are here heaped upon believers. May we have the grace to be able to appropriate them, and to expound them in our lives!

That you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

See where you once were, and see also to what you have been called by God's grace: "out of darkness into light." That is not all: into His light. Even that is not all: "into his marvellous light." The light of the gospel is full of wonders. As common light is made up of many colors, so the light of God's grace is made up of many marvellous colors, – the colors of all the attributes of God.

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 you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

Oh, the dignity which Christ has put upon the humblest believer!

What a high office, and, consequently, what a solemn responsibility is ours!

But you are a chosen generation,

Hear this, you believers, drink in this precious truth. See God's election, making you to be a people born of the Holy Spirit: a chosen generation,

A royal priesthood,

This is a wonderful combination, kings and priests at the same time; all honors converge upon you through divine grace: "a royal priesthood,"

A holy nation, a peculiar people.

You have national privileges. God does not consider you as a mob or a herd of men, but as a nation—and a nation with this unique hallmark upon you: that you are a holy nation.

This is the true token of your nationality: that you are holiness unto the Lord, a peculiar people belonging to God alone, marked off from the rest of mankind as uniquely His.

You are not, and you are not to be, as other men are; you are a peculiar people.

Your road is not the broad one where the many go; it is the narrow one which the few find. Your happiness is not worldly pleasure, but pleasures at the right hand of God which are forevermore. You are a peculiar people.

That you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

You are to be advertisers of the praises or virtues of Christ, not only to know them and to be glad to know them, but to make them known to others. Beloved, how far are you doing this? I put the question personally to each one of you, for you were chosen by God on purpose that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

But you are a chosen generation,

There is the contrast between the disobedient and all true believers. You have the chosen Saviour to be the chief cornerstone, upon whom you who are living stones are to be built up into a spiritual house, which is to be the abiding place of the Most High God.

A royal priesthood—

You are to be like Melchisedec, in whom the two offices of priest and king were combined in one person. More than that, you are to be like your Lord, in respect to his royal priesthood. That he should have loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, seems to be an honour which is far too high for us. It appears to bring us almost too near our Lord, yet it is not so, for Peter wrote, under divine inspiration, Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,—

A holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

God's grace has been bestowed upon you so that you may show forth His praises, or, as the marginal reading puts it, His "virtues." Note what the Lord has done for you: He has called you "out of darkness" into light, into His light, "into this marvelous light." There are three thoughts there that are beautifully blended into one.

What marvelous light that is into which God calls us! Try to measure it by the darkness in which you were; try to measure it by the deeper darkness into which you were going; try to measure it by the eternal darkness which would have fallen upon you if you had died in the dark. God has graciously brought you into His marvelous light.