1 Peter 2:9

Plain English Version

But you are the people God picked out for himself. Together you work for him, like the men that looked after his ceremonies. You are his own family. God called you away from doing bad things, so you can do good things. It is like you used to live in the dark so that nobody could see you do bad things there, but now he called you away from that to live in his good light. So let’s tell everyone that God is really great and really good.

Cross References

Matthew 4:16

The people there don’t know much about God. It is like they are in the dark, but they will see a big bright light. They thought they were going to die, but a light will start to shine for them.”

Matthew 5:16

You have to be like that candle. You have to let everyone see that you are following me. They will see all the good things you do, and they will say good things about God, your father in heaven. They will say, ‘God is really great.’ ”

Luke 1:79

That light will shine for everybody. Some people are like they are in the dark. They think they will die soon. But that light will shine on everybody. It will show us how to live in a happy and quiet way.”

John 17:19

And I am giving myself to you to do your work. I will do that to help my followers, so that they will give themselves to you to do your work, and only listen to your true message.”

Acts 20:28

Now you leaders have to make sure you keep on following Jesus properly, and you have to help God’s people to follow him properly too. The Holy Spirit picked you to be their leaders, so look after them properly. Remember, God bought his people with the blood of his own son.

Acts 26:18

and you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes so that they can see things properly. They will come to God. Then Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, he will not control them with his power any more. It is like they are always in the dark now, but they will come into the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.”

Acts 26:28

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have just been talking to me for a little while. You can’t get me to become a Christian so quick.”

1 Corinthians 3:17

Yes, you mob are God’s special people, like his special house here on earth. So if somebody makes a Christian mob split up, it is like they break up God’s house, and God will punish that person properly.

Ephesians 1:14

And now God promises us that one day we will be properly free from doing wrong things. He gives us the Holy Spirit now. It is the first good thing that he gives us, and it shows us that he will give us other good things, for sure. So we really thank God, and we say that he is really great.

Ephesians 1:6

So we thank him a lot for that. God loves his son, Jesus, very much, and after we are joined to his son, God is really good to us too.

Philippians 3:14

I keep trying to be like Jesus, so that God will take me up to properly join up with Jesus. That will be my prize.

Colossians 1:13

You know, the boss over the bad spirits always used to push us to do bad things. It’s like we were in a bad place, where he is the boss. But God sent his son, Jesus, to get us out of that place. He took the payback for us, so that now God will not punish us. He set us free from that bad boss, and now we belong to the family of God’s son. God loves his son Jesus very much.

2 Timothy 1:9

It is God that saved us, and he picked us to be his own specially good people. We didn’t do anything to get him to like us, but he was good to us anyway. He sent Jesus Christ to come and save us. God planned all that a long time ago, even before time started,

Titus 2:14

Jesus died to save us from all the bad things of this world. He did that to change us into his own special people, like he properly cleaned us inside, and now we don’t want to do anything bad, but we only want to do good things.

1 Peter 1:2

A long time ago, God, our father, knew you, and he picked you to be in his family. His spirit picked you out from other people to make you his special people. You listened to Jesus’s words, and you did whatever he said. Jesus died and his blood came out, and it is like God put that blood of Jesus on you to make you clean. I’m asking God to be properly good to you, and to make you feel really happy and quiet inside yourselves.

1 Peter 2:5

Just like stones join together to make a house, you join up with Jesus to make a special house for God, so he will live with you. And Jesus will help you do good things and make God happy, just like the men that look after God’s ceremonies gave him good things to show him respect and make him happy.

1 Peter 4:11

If you can tell stories to people, then tell them God’s story, and tell it clearly. If you can help other people, then let God make you strong so you can help them properly. Do everything properly so that when people see it, they might say that God is really great. If they know that you follow Jesus, they might thank God for sending Jesus to us. Jesus has really great power now, and he will have that power for ever. That’s true.