The Chosen Ones

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. - 1 Peter 2:9-10 (The Message)

Peter makes it quite clear to the early believers, facing huge trials and tests, that they hadn't just stumbled into this new life in some accident. But that they had been divinely chosen. They were:

Chosen to Worship

When Luther taught of the priesthood of all believers, he was maintained that the "plowboy" and the "milkmaid" did priestly work. Moreover their plowing and milking was priestly work. Access to enter the presence of God was not restricted to a select few specialists in a sacred place. Worship was now an everyday, anywhere experience where the division between secular and sacred had disappeared.

Chosen to be holy 

The rituals that the priests of the Old Testament had to go through to be accepted before God on the day of atonement were immense. Even then they entered God's presence with fear and a rope tied round there ankle in case they had to be pulled out dead.

Now all this is replaced. The atoning altar is replaced by Jesus Christ and his shed blood. Fear has been replaced by gratitude as we now stand holy in God's presence, not because of our rituals or righteous acts, but because Jesus is Holy then I am holy.

Chosen to witness

Now we have the opportunity to tell others about the transformational difference God has brought about in our lives through the perfect work of Jesus. From a "nothing to a something" from "nobody to a somebody and from "rejected to accepted".