The term translated as “race” comes from the Greek word for “to be born” and so denotes family, clan, blood relations. The “elect exiles” Peter addresses live in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1), all provinces in Asia Minor (present-day northeast Turkey) and thus of different clans and families. Yet Peter says of them that they are a family, a clan, a race—a unity by virtue of their rebirth (1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:23) and illustrated by their being built into a single house (1 Peter 2:5). In contrast to their unbelieving neighbours, they are a family of the Father (1 Peter 1:17), not by personal choice (no one ever chooses his birth family/clan) but by God’s choice.
The term translated as “chosen” is in fact the same word Peter had used in 1 Peter 1:1 where it appears as “elect.”
Peter, then, tells “the elect [chosen] exiles of the Dispersion” that they are a single family under God and so may see themselves as a family, clan, race—united even though they come from various tribes. An implication is that there is no place for racism or tribalism among the people of God.
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.