Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Parallel translations
- WEB who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- KJV Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- NKJV who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
- NASB for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- NLT “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Once they were not a people and had not received mercy, but now they are God's people who have received mercy. Believers' whole identity is the result of God's mercy.
Overview
Echoing Hosea, Peter describes the dramatic change God's mercy has made: outsiders have become his people, and the unpitied have obtained mercy. This is especially fitting for Gentile believers but applies to all who were once estranged from God. Everything they now are—God's people, recipients of mercy—they owe to God's gracious initiative in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Hos 2:23And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
- Hos 1:9–10And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.
- Rom 9:25–26As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”
- Heb 4:16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Rom 11:6–7And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
- Rom 10:19I ask instead, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says: “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation without understanding.”
- 1 Tim 1:13I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.
- Rom 11:30Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience,
- 1 Cor 7:25Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
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Christ at the center
The lamb without blemish foreknown before the world, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, by whose wounds we are healed — the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
How 1 Peter 2:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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