Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Titus 2:14, KJV

Recommended Reading

Titus 2:11-15

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. “The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”1

Christians are, in a sense, unreasonable people. We are nonconformists and counter culturists. We don’t love the world or the things in the world. We’re citizens of another kingdom, and we don’t adapt well to this one. We do our best to get along, to love our neighbor, to do all the good we can, and to be wise and winsome. But the older translations called us “peculiar.”

Exodus 19:5 says if we obey His voice and keep His covenant, we’ll be His “peculiar treasure.” Deuteronomy 14:2 says God has chosen us to be a “peculiar people unto himself.” First Peter 2:9 says we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.”2 The essence of who we are matters, for we belong to Almighty God and we’re His peculiar treasure.

Our business today is to be New Testament Christians, proclaim New Testament Christianity, and build New Testament churches. That seems simple enough … but just try it in dead-earnest and see what happens!

Vance Havner

1George Bernard Shaw, Men and Superman (Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903), 124.

2References quoted from the King James Version.

Read-Thru-the-Bible

Jeremiah 49

http://www.davidjeremiah.org/