The Chosen Race

In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter wrote that we are a chosen race. We need to battle the temptation to see his words as metaphorical or allegorical. The original language helps us here. The Greek word for race in this passage is genos. This word is defined as kindred, offspring, producing of the same kind.

Genos does not imply that as apples and oranges are different kinds of fruit but still fruit, we are all under the fruit umbrella (Christian race) despite being from different ethnicities. Instead, this word implies that we are apples. All of us. In fact, we are so “apple” that we produce other apples of the same variety. There are some 21 other uses of the same word in both Greek and Hebrew with the same connotation.

Check out some of the other places where genos has the same meaning in Scripture:
• Genesis 1:1,12,21,24,25
• Genesis 6:20
• Genesis 7:14
• Genesis 34:16
• Genesis 40:17
• Mark 9:20
• Acts 7:13,19
• Acts 17:28-29
• Revelation 22:16