The Royal Priesthood of God!

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” – 1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV

Most of us think that we can live how we want according to our own natural desires and passions, even though God has showed His steadfast love, His mercy, and His grace towards us through Jesus Christ. We tend to think that God is going to understand whatever we do, since Isaiah 40:28 states that His understanding is unsearchable. Psalm 147:5 even declares, “…  his understanding is beyond measure.”  It is true that God is understanding us in everything that we do but God is more pleased when we are living in His image and pursuing to be like Him in everything that we do. This is because all of us actually have been created to be the image of God (Genesis 1:27). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

To be the image of God, not only through our good works through Jesus Christ but we also have to love one another in Jesus Christ (1 John 4:12), for God is love and love comes from God (1 John 4:7-8). God has loved and has been merciful to us so that we are able to pass them to others (1 John 4:19) but He wants us to love our enemies as well and be merciful to them (Luke 6:27-36). Colossians 3:12-15 tells us to be unite with one another through the love of God, due to the fact that we are supposed to make peace with others. The main reason for this is that all of us are members of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). In other words, all of us take a part of the body of Jesus, especially to those of us who are His followers (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13) Furthermore, when we love each other deeply through the love of God, we do not care the bad occurrences that we had faced when we were against each other and what is going to happen between us (1 Peter 4:8). This is probably the reason that loving others is the law of the Spirit (Romans 13:8-10).