V 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Ephesians 2:19 …You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.
There you are – you now belong to God; He has accepted you! Once upon a time you did not belong to God’s family; you were a stranger, an alien, you were in a dark place, outside the Covenant that marked the people of God. In a reading recently I was reminded of the occasion when Jesus was baptised. ‘One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.’ (Luke 4) Jesus was loved and proclaimed as God’s Son before he even began his work.
God’s love, grace and kindness come to us, welcomes us, accepts us before we do anything for him.
God’s love for us is not dependent on anything we do for him; he reaches into the darkness and lifts us into the light because he loves us! His work of transforming our lives goes on after he has welcomed us into his family. He doesn’t look at us and say ‘You’re good enough to be one of my family’; He says ‘You are mine – my own special possession. Come on in‘.
So Peter goes on ‘As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ’
Just as God reached out to us, so he calls us to reach out to others, whoever they may be, regardless of their circumstances, in order to invite them in to the same family of God where we know we belong.