⁹ But you are a “chosen race; a royal priesthood”; a holy nation; a people for God’s possession. Your purpose is to announce the virtuous deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. ¹⁰ Once you were “no people”; now you are “God’s people.” Once you had not received mercy; now you have received mercy.

Living in a pagan world

¹¹ My beloved ones, I beg you—strangers and resident aliens as you are—to hold back from the fleshly desires that wage war against your true lives.