Living Stones to Glorify our Creator

Big stones and little stones

1 Peter 2:1–12 “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 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. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ”

The ‘him’ of verse 4 is clearly Jesus. We use a lot of the same imagery in this passage that we have spoken of the last two weeks. Jesus is referred to as a ‘living stone’ here. In verse 6, Christ is referred to as our cornerstone. In verse 7, he is the rejected stone. In verse 8, he is a rock of offense. All the things we have spoken of are all identified clearly. Jesus is rejected by many, but God has given him ultimate glory and honor. He is hated, but he is the foundation of our lives as Christians. Our spiritual house must be built on him or it will ultimately fall.

There is a new wrinkle added this week. Peter identifies us (Christians) as being ‘like living stones…being built up as a spiritual house.’ We must take pains to identify who we are in this passage. There is plenty of false teaching in this world that teaches that believers are ‘little gods’. False teachers have taught that the creative spiritual authority that God has is also possessed by us. I remember one lady I knew that believed that her words had creative power. Therefore she would carefully avoid saying anything negative for fear she would bring it to pass. In practice, she wouldn’t acknowledge bad news given to her by her doctor. Her father in law would write the model of car he desired repeatedly in order to ultimately bring it pass because he possessed that creative power. Please understand, this is NOT what we are talking about. That teaching is false.

Instead we must understand the context. We were not God’s people. He has brought us in by his mercy and his grace. We have no