1 Peter 2:4-5 - Living Stones

1 Peter 2:4-5, Part I

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Most of today’s thoughts come from my commentary, The Interpreters Bible. A commentary is a wonderful tool as you study scripture (just make sure it is written by a reputable author). They come in particularly handy when you have difficulty figuring out how to teach or write about a passage…like this one for me. So enjoy!

Christianity comes to us through the Christian community, and without relation to the Christian community our individual Christianity becomes either impossible or tenuous and incomplete. Jesus Christ has a body, which is the church. There is no disembodied Christianity. Those who are related to Christ as Lord and Savior relate themselves to the church. Christianity is a social faith, for it embodies itself in a unique and organic community of fellow believers.

However “living” the stones in the house of Christ may be, they must come to the Cornerstone if they would find a place in the pattern of God’s design; by themselves they lack the larger context. No individual Christian makes a church. Paul thinks of Christians as members of the body of Christ; members mean absolutely nothing when severed from the body. So Peter declares that Christians must come to the building… again and again and with increasing surrender, so that the Cornerstone and stones may be cemented and fused together into a glorious edifice which reveals the glory of God in Christ.

The ranch staff is a good picture of God’s spiritual house: different types of people working together to accomplish one goal by doing many different things. The wranglers work with the horses, the housekeepers clean the cabins, kid’s club takes care of children, the kitchen provides the meals, etc. Everyone’s job is different, yet we are all called to the same place for the same purpose – to glorify Christ by serving the guests. It is a spiritual house.

Chew on that for a while and I’ll finish up next time…