How Special We Are!
"But ye are…
a peculiar people."
1 Peter 2: 9
Many of the older translations of the Bible used
the word peculiar to describe the people of God.
In the King James Version, for example, we learn that Israel is to
be God’s “peculiar treasure” (Exodus 19:5) and that Christians
are
to be a “peculiar people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). And
newer versions update language, telling us we're a special people.
Peculiar now has a different connotation.And yet…
A. W. Tozer wrote, “A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He
feels
supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every
day to Someone he can't see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he
can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when
he is weakest, richest when he's poorest and happiest when he feels
worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so
he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible and knows that
which passes knowledge.”
How special we are!
"Be not afraid to possess this peculiar character,
for though it is misunderstood on earth, it is well
understood in heaven."
Charles Spurgeon