Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
were.
Hosea 1:9,10 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God…
Romans 9:25,26 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved…
obtained.
Hosea 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Romans 11:6,7,30 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work…
1 Corinthians 7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
but now you are the people of God
Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, Gentiles are grafted into the family of God (Romans 11:17-24). This inclusion fulfills the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). The church, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, is now considered the spiritual Israel (Galatians 3:28-29). This reflects the unity and universality of the gospel message, breaking down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14-16).
once you had not received mercy
Before coming to faith in Christ, Gentiles were outside the covenant of mercy that God had extended to Israel. Mercy in the biblical sense often refers to God's compassion and forgiveness towards humanity. The lack of mercy signifies a state of separation from God and His promises. This aligns with Ephesians 2:12, where Paul describes the Gentiles as "excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise."
but now you have received mercy
Receiving mercy is a central theme of the New Testament, highlighting God's grace extended to all through Jesus Christ. This mercy is not earned but given freely through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). The transformation from not receiving mercy to receiving it underscores the new covenant established by Jesus' sacrifice, which offers forgiveness and reconciliation with God (Hebrews 8:10-12). This reflects the fulfillment of prophecies like Isaiah 49:6, where salvation is extended to the ends of the earth.
Peter echoes Hosea’s warning (Hosea 1:9) to remind readers of their former spiritual isolation.
• Before Christ, we were, as Ephesians 2:12 says, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise.”
• No shared identity, no covenant standing—just fragmented lives shaped by sin (Romans 3:23).
• Like scattered exiles, we had no lasting citizenship, no anchor, no family name that linked us to God.
In Christ, everything changes.
• “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:10) pairs perfectly with the prior verse: “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).
• The moment we trust Christ, we receive a new identity—citizenship in God’s kingdom (Philippians 3:20), adoption into His family (John 1:12), and inclusion in His household (Ephesians 2:19).
• What Israel anticipated under the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33) becomes reality for every believer: God claims us as His own cherished people.
Peter next recalls Hosea 1:6, where the prophet named a daughter Lo-Ruhamah, “No Mercy.”
• Outside of Christ we stood “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).
• Mercy was withheld because sin still ruled, and justice demanded payment (Romans 6:23).
• Our spiritual record was stamped guilty, leaving us unable to plead our own case (Psalm 130:3).
God intervenes through the cross.
• “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
• Titus 3:5 affirms that “He saved us… according to His mercy, through the washing of rebirth.”
• Hosea’s prophecy of restoration (Hosea 2:23) is fulfilled: “I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
• Mercy is not a vague feeling; it is the concrete pardon God grants, canceling sin’s debt and welcoming us with open arms (Romans 9:25-26).
1 Peter 2:10 captures the gospel’s before-and-after snapshot. We moved from anonymity to belonging, from judgment to mercy, from isolation to family. The verse reassures believers that our status is settled: we are God’s people, permanently marked by His mercy, and nothing can reverse what He has declared.
(10) Which in time past were not a people.--Here at last, say some, we have a distinct proof that the Epistle was written to the Gentiles only, or, at least, to churches which contained a very small proportion of Jews. Such, however, is by no means the case; in fact, the opposite. We have here an emphasised adaptation of Hosea 2:23, "And I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, 'Thou art Animi,' i.e., My people." Now who were Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi? Types of Israel left unpitied, and rejected from their covenant with God. And this unpitied and rejected Israel, after being "scattered," or sown, all over the earth, was to be restored again to favour, together with the increment of the Gentiles who joined, it as the result of the "sowing." St. Peter means, then, that in his Hebrew readers and the brethren from among the Gentiles, who by the gospel of St. Paul had adhered to them, this promise given by Hosea had found its fulfilment. But, as usual, the quotation demands a more searching scrutiny of the context from which it is taken. The name Diaspora, or Dispersion, by which St. Peter, in 1Peter 1:1, designates those to whom he writes, was applied to themselves by the Jews in direct allusion (as seems probable) to the name Jezreel, or God will scatter, in Hosea 1:4. Now mark that St. Peter does not say "which in time past were not God's people," but "were not a people." This was the effect of the dispersion, or "scattering." Though each Jew of the dispersion retained, and still retains, in isolation, his national characteristics and aspirations, yet their unity--that which made them a "people"--was, and is, for the time broken. The Hebrews had not only ceased to be in covenant as "God's people," but had ceased to be "a people" at all. But in Christ, that very "scattering" becomes a "sowing" (Hosea 2:23), for the name Jezreel means both equally; their very dispersion becomes the means of their multiplication by union with the Gentiles in Christ, and thus spiritually they recover the lost unity, and become once more a solid and well-governed confederation, i.e., "a people," and that "the people of God." (See John 11:52, and Dr. Pusey's notes on Hosea.) It is a mistake to take St. Paul's quotation of this passage in Romans 9:26, as if it referred solely to the Gentiles; for he expressly affirms that the title "My people" belongs to neither section exclusively, but to both in reunion--"us whom He called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles." . . . Verse 10. - Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God. St. Peter quotes the prophecy of Hosea (Hosea 2:23), as St. Paul also does in Romans 9:25, 26. And as St. Paul applies the prophet's words (said originally of the Jews) to the Christian Church, to those called "not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles," so apparently does St. Peter here. They were not a people; "Ne populus quidem," says Bengel, "nedum Dei populus." It is the calling of God which gives a unity to the Church gathered out of all races and all lands, and makes it the people of God. Which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. The aorist participle, ἐεληθέντες, implies that that mercy had been obtained at a definite time, at their conversion.