re: 1 PE 2:9-11
10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.d
11Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
There is a strong bond between Jesus and his people, between Jesus and his Church. We are one with him and he with us (Ephesians 5:31-32). When a person who attacks the Church, attacks Jesus personally.