Why we worship, 1 Peter 2

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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

For the ancients, it was more often, less of an issue the character of the deity that they worship, but the important thing ,in the Greco-Roman world, was what the deity had accomplished that directly benefited those who worshiped.  Peter draws on this in 1 Peter 2 as he cites Isaiah 43:20-21, “The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” and Exodus 19:4-6, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”  While Peter is speaking to Gentile Christians he refers to them in the same way that God referred to Israel while in the wilderness.  Peter recognizes just as Paul did when he said, “there is neither Jew nor Greek” in Galatians 3:28 that there are not two separate nations established under their own covenants with God but one.  They have not replaced the Jewish nation, but we have joined them in the promise. 

During the Passover feast, it is celebrated the time when God brought the Jews out of slavery in Egypt into covenant with Himself, “from darkness into great light.”  In this same way the Gentiles have been included into the benefits of the covenant, and Peter ties the Gentile Christians in with the promised restoration, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people” citing Hosea 1:10. In addition when Peter says, “once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” he is citing the promise to Israel in Hosea 2:23, which now includes all those who believe in Christ by faith unto salvation.

As a result of the accomplishment of the one true God we are compelled to worship, setting aside “all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1) and Peter calls us to as “sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)  All this so that God will be glorified through us.  He is glorified through us as we “present your (our) bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your (our) spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)  We are compelled to worship because of what He has done.  We pursue purity in our lives so that those in society that wish to condemn us may be given reason to glorify God by our lives.