Devotion 4: Proclaimer

When I was given this assignment to write, the word “proclaimer” stood out to me. I am a bit of an interesting guy, so the first thing that came to my head was the band The Proclaimers and their song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Yes, I am only 28 years old, but bear with me. When I began to write this devotion, I started to listen to the song. The core theme of the song is how a man is so dedicated to his love that he would walk a thousand miles for her. I want us to hold onto this idea while we look at our passage.

It says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

There is that word again, “proclaim,” right in the center of this verse. To grasp what Peter is saying here, we need to connect it with the call in Hebrews 13 to go “outside the camp.” God calls us His people and we have experienced His goodness. Because we have encountered His love, we are sent out to proclaim it to the world. We have been called out of our sin by Jesus, and we too must share that with those who are living in that same darkness.

As believers in Christ, we are not meant to receive the salvation of Jesus and then just hoard it for ourselves. We are called to go and share it with others through our actions, our words, and our lives. God calls us a “chosen race,” meaning we belong to God, we are His children, and we want others to experience the “excellencies" of our amazing Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, this song by this 1980s one-hit-wonder band is obviously not talking about the same thing that the Word of God is talking about. The core message still stands: are we willing to go and proclaim the Gospel? Would we be willing to “walk 500 miles and… 500 more” to share the Good News with others? In the same way that Jesus had grace upon us, do we want that same grace for those around us?