God’s Desire for Us to be Peculiar
Once a month, I have the honor of meeting with the other women Bible study leaders to present a study from a chapter of Deuteronomy. The focus of this kind of studying is how can I be a stronger leader in all of the areas God has entrusted me in. This is my study/devotional from that. I pray that God uses it in your life as much as he did mine.
“We must be set apart from the darkness of this world, which allows us to adopt holiness through Christ.”
Common, Normal, Ordinary, Unimportant, Regular, Uncharacteristic, Similar. These are all antonyms to the word “peculiar.” I don’t know about everyone else, but I wouldn’t use any of those words to describe someone like Alan Shelby or even Melissa Wharton. This is because we can see that they aren’t like everybody else. Something is different. It isn’t because of their Hawaiian Shirts or pink hair; it is because of their love for Christ and their desire to share the gospel with the entire world. And that is what the Lord wants from his people: to be peculiar to the point that others around them (the world & other believers) can see and notice that something is different, and that they too would desire to have that difference.
If we want to lead and shepherd well, we have to be okay with living out the word of God and allowing people to see that it causes us to be peculiar and that it is all worth it.
Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Called
In Deuteronomy 14, we see immediately that the Nation of Israel is called “an holy people unto the Lord thy God” and that “the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself.” Even though we are not the Nation of Israel, we are still God’s people because he has chosen us to be his—to be reflections of him (Lev 19:2). He desires for us to abandon our own ways, or the ways of the world, by becoming sanctified and righteous through him and his word.
Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
God has called us to be peculiar people. To be peculiar, we must be holy. God’s desire was for his people to be holy like he is holy, and that is only possible through Him! (Gen 1:26)
Leviticus 11:44-45 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
So what does holy mean? Well, it means to be “set apart” (1 Th 4:7; 1 Peter 1:16) So, to be peculiar, we must be lights in the midst of all of the darkness. We must be set apart from the darkness of this world, which allows us to adopt holiness through Christ. An example of what this holiness looks like is in Ephesians 5:7-12, specifically in verse 8, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”
As good shepherds, the people we are leading & investing in must see that we are a peculiar & holy people only because of Christ.
“...we are in danger of being easily enticed into the things of this world and not looking peculiar at all. ”
Follow
A question to ask yourself is whether or not you are following Christ with your life. Deuteronomy 14 includes laws & commandments that the Nation of Israel needed to follow because they were chosen as the holy people unto the Lord. These included: not cutting themselves (v1), avoiding unclean foods (v3-21), and giving a tithe up to the Lord (v22-29).
So, what does God want from 2021 Laodicean trashbags today? Well, what he has wanted from the beginning! He wants us to follow him! (Matt 22:36-37) It isn’t easy to avoid & not participate in the things of this world, but it is possible when we are following Christ with our lives. If we are choosing to be obedient to Christ and his word, it is easy to put off our old man and put on our new man (Col 3:10).
Now, God isn’t concerned with me eating the unclean thing of Reese’s; instead, he is concerned with what I am putting into my body, what I’m being consumed by as I consume. And because of this, our eyes and hearts must constantly be in the word of God and know the word of God for ourselves. If they aren’t, we are in danger of being easily enticed into the things of this world and not looking peculiar at all. To be peculiar, we must follow the Lord/the word of God wholeheartedly.
Now, the result of following Christ with our lives: he makes us fishers of men (Matt 4:19); he hears us (John 10:27), and HE IS THE GREATEST EXAMPLE, SO WE SHOULD FOLLOW HIM: 1 Peter 2:21-25 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
As good shepherds, the people we are leading & investing in should desire to follow us because we are wholeheartedly following Christ.
Give Up
A part of following Christ with our lives involves us giving up everything, so are you giving up everything to follow Christ? In Deuteronomy 14, verses 22-29, we see a command to the people to devote themselves to the Lord by giving him their dues. It was a call to give willingly (v23), a call to give faithfully (v23), a call to give to the stranger, and a call to give to the fatherless, & the widow (v29). An attribute of being peculiar & holy is to give what God has given us back to him. Money is the easiest thing to give sometimes, and it can be used as an excuse for why we can’t give anything else. God wants us to tithe with our lives, not just our finances.
We must be willing to give up everything, just like Mark 10:21 tells us: “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
To be peculiar, we must give everything up to the Lord willingly & faithfully, including our dolla dolla bills y'all.
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Deuteronomy means “second law,” and in this book, Moses is delivering the law for the second time to the second generation of Israel because their parents didn’t adhere to what Moses taught them the first time around. God’s heart was that his chosen, peculiar people would be holy by adhering to the laws & commandments so they could be a reflection of him to the rest of the world. This is what God wants from us as well. He wants us to obey & live out what the word of God says so that we can be a reflection of him to the world, including the people we are leading & shepherding.
A good shepherd is peculiar & holy because they chose to follow Christ with their life by giving up everything to Him.
Hannah Hatton is a discipler and small group leader in Midtown Baptist Temple’s College and Young Adults ministry. She is on the discipleship team and C&YA Blog team.