There is unity in Christ, there is no unity without. I think that well sums up Peter’s point in the first half of 1 Peter 2:10. Today I want to look at an important difference between those who are in Christ and those who are not. There are of course many distinguishing factors. Peter, before beginning verse 10, has already named quite a few. We covered each of them in the most recent handful of studies. Today we will peruse the scriptures, to see if we can better understand this concept of Christian unity.
9 But 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. 10 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
Unity as people of God
Peter lists a number of designations in verse 9 which separate Christians from non-Christians. He writes that collectively they are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, and those whom God called out of darkness. Given these designations, we could simply rest here. Is it any wonder Peter followed that up with, Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people?
Closing remarks?
So, that’s it for today! We are God’s people. His choosing us and uniting us under the banners listed in 1 Peter 2:9 show there is true unity in the body of believers. And, it is a unity not shared by those outside the faith. Have a great rest of your day!
Unity, what makes a people a people?
Well, now, not so hasty. Let’s look at what this unity I am speaking of is, and why Peter would tell his audience they are now a people where once they were not. We know the churches Peter is writing to include former Jews who have converted to Christianity. Please see Obedience and Blood, under the heading an uneducated guess, if you are not sure what I am speaking of here. Surely, if any people could be said to have been a people, defined as a people, and proclaimed by scripture to be a people, it was the people of Israel. I am not going to try to make a list here. Just open the OT to wherever you like, and it will come up before too long.
So, if Peter were writing to a group of people composed, at least in part, of persons who were most assuredly members of the people of the Old Testament, why would he write Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people? And what is this unity I am speaking of, if Peter is only writing to former Jews?
Unity among Jews and Gentiles
Briefly, then, here is my point. The churches to whom Peter was writing were likely peopled, at least in part, with former Jews. But, given the locations of the churches, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, it is doubtful the churches were comprised only of former Jews. These are what, at the time, a Jew would call Gentile cities and regions. Here’s a very brief run-down:
- Pontus – A city, now in modern-day Turkey, comprised at the time of primarily Persian folks. But also a coastal city on the Black Sea.
- Glatia – Galatia was not a city, but a region. It was Celtic in origin, and actually gets its name from the Gauls.
- Cappadocia – Another region, now in modern-day Turkey. Also primarily Persian in origin. Hellenized, and then under the rule of Rome. Future (at the time of Peter’s writing) home to Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus!
- Asia – Do I need to prove to you that this was not a Jewish province?
- Bithynia – A Thracian region and city, whose tenacious population resisted both Persian and Roman rule.
Given these locales, the churches there were doubtless comprised of a mix of people from a mix of nationalities. Also, regarding the converted Jews in his audience, Peter is not referring to a unity produced by bloodline or tradition. Peter is writing about a unity that comes from God in Christ.
The unity of God’s people
Okay, what is this unity? Why are we talking about it? Peter writes to his audience, sure. But, I believe he also writes to us today. What’s more, Peter wrote to and was read by Christians from everywhere on the planet for the last two-thousand years. To each of them, (and to each of us) Peter writes, Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. That is unity.
There’s unity, and then there’s unity!
Now, we know that from the time of the Church’s inception there have ever been problems of unity. It is true that the apostles wrote many times to encourage unity among congregations. Individual churches are made of individual people. People are fractious. Just look around you. How many different denominations and independent congregations can you spot? The apostles did urge their audiences toward unity and toward being of one mind (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:10, Philippians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 13:11). But, this sort of behavioral unity is not what I am writing about today. It is also, not that to which Peter is writing in 1 Peter 2:10.
Jesus, in the High Priestly Prayer, prayed for the unity to which we are referring today.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
John 17:20-23
That they may all be one
This is a beautiful passage! It is amazing to remember that Jesus prayed not only for his disciples, but also for you and me. And, here, you will notice that Jesus prays, that they may all be one. This is the unity of which we are speaking. This is the people that Peter refers to as God’s people. We are one in Christ, just as Christ prayed we would be. Again, it is not a unity born out in our behavior. Although, I have no doubt that it will be for us in the life to come. It is a unity that comes from God through Christ. God chose us to be His people. Jesus paid the price to ransom us as God’s people. Praise be to God!
You can see both kinds of unity, behavioral and the unity all believers share in Christ, illustrated in the passage below.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:1-6
Unity, two ways
Paul urges the behavioral unity. He tells the churches at Ephesus how to conduct their lives among one another. Then, he tells them why. Paul says we are to act in a way that demonstrates our eagerness to maintain unity of the Spirit. Then, he explains it is because, there is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
We can say, therefore, that regardless of our obvious lack of unity in behavior, practice, etc., we nevertheless exist in unity with all Christians everywhere across time. This is because, like salvation itself, this unity is a work of God, and not reliant on the works of men. Praise God for that! Before we were not a people, but through Christ we have become God’s people.
How dare you say there is no unity among the damned?
But, there still remains for me to back up my audacious claim that there is unity in Christ, and there is no unity without. In a sense, I am wrong. There is a sort of unification of all people who are not part of the kingdom of God. That unification spans time as well. We call them the lost, or (perhaps less frequently) the damned. You could say they are altogether, and all together, damned. This is a hard saying. And, it is not in the least a laughing matter. I do not think I am wrong in saying while they may be unified by outcome, there is no unity inherent among them.
United in depravity
We know from scripture that all of mankind is inherently wicked. Everyone, even Christians (I hear someone say, “Especially Christians!”) were born in total depravity. We all come into this world as rebels.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,[b]
who seek after God.3 They have all fallen away;
Psalm 53:1-3
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
When is a people not a people?
It is only by the grace of God and the atonement of Christ that anyone is counted among the people of God. And, here, Peter says, Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. So, apart from God’s work through Christ, we were all, just like the lost, not a people. Why is that? Don’t we have various groups with which we identify, and various factions to which we claim allegiance? I admit, I haven’t given this much thought. But, I think it may be correct to say that for people who are among the lost, they were not lost due to unity with some or other group.
There is no unity outside of Christ
I posit that they were and are lost individually, and even individualistically. It is not their belonging to something greater than themselves, but simply misguided, which results in their damnation, but their refusal to belong to anything greater than themselves. They each refuse to believe in God, and each set themselves up as the god of their own lives. A crowd of self-willed gods will not unite under any lord’s banner. It is in this sense that I submit to you that there is no unity outside of Christ.
Let’s close with Reverend Lillie’s take on 1 Peter 2:10. It is very insightful, and really, if you are scrolling and this study seems to long, you couldn’t go wrong by reading his words alone.
Instead, therefore, of understanding, as very many do, the first division of the verse thus: “Who once were not the people of God, but now are the people of God,” we shall do better, I think, to interpret in this way ; that, so long as they were not God’s people, “they were so base and miserable as not to be worthy of the name of a people at all”—they were not even a people, so far from being God’s people; but now they had been lifted out of that state of ignominious depression and nameless obscurity; lifted so high as to have become not merely a people, but the people of God—belonging to Him and acknowledged by Him, and He was their God. Their present elevation was as signal, as their former position had been degraded
Reverend John Lillie, Lectures on the First and Second Epistles of Peter, 124, Charles Scribner & Co., 1869
