Peculiar People

Possibly, you do not drink alcohol, smoke, do drugs, or use foul language. Mayhap you do not get involved in gossip. Perhaps you do not look at porn or dirty movies. You are not money-hungry or materialistic. Maybe you pray at meals in public. You may shout and praise God and Christ when the Holy Spirit washes over you. Perchance you quote Bible verses and give your interpretation of them. It could be that you speak about how you are saved by Jesus Christ and you would like others to know Him also. Maybe you walk away from trouble when you can. You are waiting until marriage to have sex.

Most people, not all, will walk away or avoid you. They give you strange looks and laugh. Probably they are talking behind your back about how strange you talk and act. You are excluded from their activities.

My Webster Dictionary defines peculiar as “private property”, “belonging exclusively to one person or group”, and “idiosyncratic, eccentric, singular, strange, weird”. In today’s society, it means something strange, odd, or queer. The word “peculiar” has a negative connotation. However, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a (peculiar) people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9) (My New International Version leaves out the word “peculiar” for some reason.) In Latin, “peculium” means “private property” so that peculiar property means “pertaining to the individual.” Us Christians belong to God.

“who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a (peculiar) people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14) (My New International Version leaves out the word “peculiar” for some reason.) This verse means “set apart“, “special”, “unique”, and “different from the rest.”

Are you far from the norm? You do not desire to blend in or conform to the popular crowd. You love your enemies and pray for them. You would rather give than receive. God is first in everything you do, say, or feel. You want to please God. You want to “do good works.” You strive to become more Christ-like every day. Then perhaps you are one of God’s peculiar people. We are called to obey the commands of Jesus and be different from those around us. Live in such a way that those outside the faith see your good deeds and manners and know that there is something “different” about you.

 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Standout and do not fit in with the crowd. Do not engage in the sinful activities the world promotes, nor retain the insipid, corrupt mind that the world creates. “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:14-15) Believers in Jesus Christ are simply in the world, “physically present“, but not of it, not part of its values. To most people that makes us freaks or weirdoes. They dislike us because we, as Christians, refuse to behave and sin like them.

Pray to God in Jesus’ name and ask for strength and courage to be different. Be a light to those who are in spiritual darkness.

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