Father Mike Schmitz

And so our call is to be holy as the Lord God is holy.

And he goes on to talk about how we are not only a new people, the living stones, chosen people, but he emphasizes in chapter two, verse nine, he says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.

Once you were no people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And that reality, of course, from all nations, from all races, from all ethnicities, from all backgrounds, we are now gathered into one.

And that's one of the reasons why as Christians, we, gosh, the reality of coming from different countries, speaking different languages, belonging to different races, all of those things are essentially nullified.

Actually, I would say this, all of those are unified.

Maybe a better way to say it.

All those are unified.

in the lord jesus our most important identity peter is saying here most important identity is that we are god's children therefore our ethnicity yeah sure that might be important but not as important as being an adopted son or daughter of god our race sure that might be important but not anywhere close to as important as being an adopted son or daughter of god that that

where our background as sinners in whatever way that we have sinned or continue to sin whatever we struggle with those things can be important but they're nowhere near as important as the fact that you and i are now adopted sons and daughters of god the father so important made into a royal priesthood remember that jesus christ is the high priest and he has made us into a nation of priests able to offer the sacrifice to the father which is just

Absolutely incredible.

Last little note on St.

Peter.

When talking about being subject to every human institution, he's basically saying, live as great citizens, live as good citizens, and have that sense of order that's given to the world, whether that be to the emperor, to the governor, whoever that is.

In families, husbands and wives have an obligation to each other

Parents and children have an obligation to each other.

And even those slaves and masters have an obligation to each other.

Again, maybe someone can distort this and say, no, no, no, the men are over the women and the parents are over the kids and masters are over slaves.

But that is not what St.