Devotion: Chosen Strangers (1 Peter 1:1-2)

¹ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,  ² who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 

(1 Peter 1:1-2 )

Our society is driven by choice.  From the dozens of brands of similar products in our marketplace to the endless education and career options available to us, we value having our opportunities to make choices.  Choice has become an integral part of our culture.  We expect to have more and better choices available to us in every aspect of our lives.  The results are astounding.  We have hundreds of channels available on our televisions, thousands of entertainment options to choose from via the Internet, a multitude of shopping malls filled with a wide array of merchandise, and hospitals that compete with one another for our business.  More than an expectation, choice is now seen as a right in our culture.  We are convinced that we are entitled to be able to choose whatever we want to choose, including choosing to live in ways that contradict God's Word.  We are so consumed with exercising and protecting our perceived right to choose that we have lost sight of what choice has become to us.  In our culture choice is not a right nor an entitlement; choice is a god.  By making choice into a god, our drive for choice has resulted in us being controlled by it.

Our expectation of being able to make choices about every aspect of our lives has had disastrous spiritual consequences.  Some of those consequences are obvious to those who confess Jesus and hold to His Word.  We can clearly see that the choice to marry a person of the same gender is sexual immorality and not an option for believers.  We can also see that the issue of abortion in our culture is not a matter of being pro-choice or anti-choice, but is an issue of preserving life and protecting unborn human beings from being murdered.  Choosing these things, while condoned by our world, is an affront to God and a rejection of His Word.  The fact that they are viable choices in our culture shows us how warped and corrupted our society has become.  Our objection to believing that we have a choice in such matters puts us out of touch with our culture.  Our culture's hostile reaction to us when we question the right to make such choices shows us that we are "strangers in the world."

As clearly as we may see the spiritual poverty of those who makes choices in opposition to God's Word, we can be very blind to the destructive ideas about choice that we embrace.  Far too many Christians in our culture see their relationship with Christ based on a choice that they have made.  In a spiritually unhealthy and dangerous sense of self-congratulations, the emphasis in some Christians communities is placed on the place, moment, and circumstances under which a person made his choice for Jesus rather than on the place, moment, and circumstances of the saving choice of Jesus.  When faith in Christ is based on our decision we are left with the uncertainties that are part and parcel of human choice.  Instead of taking our cues from a culture consumed by the choices we make, God turns our focus to His choice and the confidence that it brings to us.  His choice was made in His foreknowledge before there was time, it was made on the basis of His love rather than our faithfulness, and it was sealed on Calvary where He shed His blood to make us His people.  It was a strange choice, but it was His to make.  By His choice we have been delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation.  By His choice, we've been made alive and set apart from a dying world which has no place for us.  We are chosen strangers.