Why does the King James Version of the Bible call Christians a peculiar people? In that version of the Bible, 1 Peter 2:9 refers to Christians as a peculiar people. That phrase sounds odd to our modern ears, because today the word has taken on somewhat of a negative connotation that it did not have several hundred years ago when the King James was translated. So what does the phrase “a peculiar people” mean? This phrase is part of Peter’s description of who Christians are. They are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. The phrase “peculiar people” refers back to what was said of the nation of Israel in Exodus 19:5, where God refers to Israel as His “treasured possession”. In the New Testament the word is found several times in the New Testament where it refers to “a purchased possession”. This meaning explains why modern translations translate “peculiar people” as “a people for God’s own possession”. The modern translation underscores the truth that Christians are a treasured and valued possession of almighty God through the redemptive work of Jesus.
This understanding of who we are as Christians, as followers of Jesus, explains why Peter went on to exhort his readers to live in a certain manner in verse 11. There he writes “I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul”. Here Peter instructed his readers, Christians, to live in this present world, no matter what nation they call home, as foreigners and exiles. Why would Peter tell Christians to live as foreigners and exiles in their own homeland? Paul shed light on this when he wrote to the Philippians, that our citizenship is in heaven from where we await our Savior, Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). If Christians have their citizenship in heaven, then wherever they may dwell on earth, they are foreigners. How do foreigners live? Well, they are different. Their affections are placed elsewhere. They are not as emotionally attached to what is taking place where they live. They have different values and may appear out of place at times and feel a certain measure of discomfort and displacement. They constantly feel as if they are not completely at home. This understanding explains why the early Christians after being arrested and questioned if they were Jewish, Greek or Roman, would simply reply that they were Christians. They no longer identified with Jewish, Roman or Greek culture. When we lived in Italy for a number of years, we had feelings such as these. Each year we had to go to the authorities to renew our “sojourners’ permit” at the police station, a constant reminder that we were not Italian. At times we were asked why we lived there. At times we felt discomfort and very much as foreigners. This is how Peter tells us we are to live, even in our country of birth. Why does he do that? So we would not adopt the values of this present evil age. Peter, and Paul, call us to live apart with values that come from our new homeland, heaven. That means sometimes we will appear different; we will feel discomfort in certain situations, and that is ok, because our citizenship is in heaven, not here.
David Freitag 