But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Contrast the privileges and destinies of believers.
Chosen - `elect' of God, even as Christ your Lord is (1 Peter 2:6).
Generation. Believers are one in spiritual origin and kindred, as distinguished from the world.
Royal - kingly. Believers, like Christ, the antitypical Melchisedek, are a body of priest-kings. Israel spiritually was designed to be the same among the nations of the earth. The full realization of this, both to the literal and the spiritual Israel, is as yet future (Isaiah 61:6; Isaiah 66:21).
Holy nation - antitypical to Israel. We must be singular, if we would be holy; consistent, if we would be useful.
Peculiar people, х laos (G2992) eis (G1519) peripoieesin (G4047)] - 'a people for an acquisition;' i:e., whom God chose to be peculiarly His: Acts 20:28, "purchased;" literally, acquired. God's "special treasure" (Exodus 19:5).
Show forth, х exangeileete (G1804)] - published abroad. Not their own praises, but His. They have no reason to magnify themselves above others; for once they had been in the same darkness, and only through God's grace had been brought to the light which they must henceforth show forth to others.
Praises, х aretas (G703)] - 'virtues,' 'excellences:' His glory, mercy (1 Peter 2:10), goodness (Greek, 1 Peter 2:3; Numbers 14:17-18; Isaiah 63:7): applied to believers (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Peter 1:5).
Out of darkness - pagan, and even Jewish, ignorance, sin, misery; so out of the dominion of the prince of darkness.
Marvellous. Peter still has in his mind Psalms 118:23; note, 1 Peter 2:7.
Light. It is called "His" - i:e., God's. Only the (spiritual) light is created by God, not darkness. In Isaiah 45:7, it is physical darkness and evil, not moral, that God is said to create: the punishment of sin, not sin itself. Peter, with characteristic boldness, brands as darkness what all the world calls light; reason, without the Holy Spirit, in spite of its vaunted power, is spiritual darkness. 'It cannot apprehend what faith is: there it is stark blind; it gropes as one without eyesight, stumbling from one thing to another, and knows not what it does' (Luther).