⁹ But you are a chosen people,^(A) a royal priesthood,^(B) a holy nation,^(C) God’s special possession,^(D) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.^{(E) 10} Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;^(F) once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society

¹¹ Dear friends,^(G) I urge you, as foreigners and exiles,^(H) to abstain from sinful desires,^(I) which wage war against your soul.^(J)