Now you are a people

"Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God." Peter's readers were spread out, far from Jerusalem and from each other. Many had never belonged anywhere as God's people. Peter tells them their scattering does not undo their belonging. Mercy has made them one people, wherever they happen to live. Mercy, not geography, is what made them a people.

In the session, Jeff pointed to Acts 8. When a great persecution broke out after Stephen's death, believers were driven out of Jerusalem, and "those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went." As Jeff put it, "the persecution did not silence the Christians." The scattering carried the gospel further. So, he said, we can celebrate being scattered.

For a digital church, that is a different way to see the distance. The people you pray with may live in different countries and across several time zones. You may never share a room. Peter says you are still one people, held together by the same mercy. And the spread is not an accident; it is how the gospel travels. Distance is not division.

Today, thank God by name for one person he has made part of your people, even though you have never met face to face. Send them a message and tell them they matter to you. Then ask God where your own scattering is carrying his word. The place you feel far from everything may be exactly where he wants the gospel to go next.