1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans 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.
Peter is painting a picture here of believers and followers of Christ Jesus coming to Him as living stones to continue building the church of Christ Jesus on the earth. Builders mined and carved huge blocks of stone to support large buildings in the ancient Near East. God is compared to such a foundation by some Old Testament and New Testament writers (Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30-31; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 18:31; Psalm 18:46; Psalm 62:2; Psalm 62:6; Matthew 7:24-25; Matthew 16:18).
Jesus is the Cornerstone by which the church's foundation (The Body of Christ Jesus) is built upon. This was rejected by the Jewish people who did not believe Jesus was the true Messiah. Peter is referring here in verse 4 to statements made by Christ Jesus and himself before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:11; Matthew 21:42), which was first spoken of in Psalm 118:22. Jesus is the Cornerstone and we are the building blocks. Jesus is alive as we are alive, together we build His house on the earth; we are His dwelling place. On the other side of the Cross, God met with people in the Physical Temple; today, we as His children are the Temple of God. He dwells in us through His Holy Spirit (Psalm 118:22).
Peter viewed the church as a living temple to which God was adding to the conversion of each new believer. Each Christian is an essential stone that enables the whole structure to fulfill its purpose (Matthew 16:15-18). Later Peter would say his readers were also priests (1 Peter 2:9), but the emphasis is on the believers being a building for priestly service, namely, a temple. Jesus is the High Priest, and we as believers in Christ are priests unto God. The sacrifice that we offer up unto God is worship and praise.
Every believer and follower of Christ Jesus has been given a specific and unique gift through which we can serve one another and spread the Gospel of Christ Jesus to the ends of the earth. This means God uses every one of us to help spread the light of the Gospel to a dark and dying world, using the unique blend of time, talents and resources, which the Lord has given us. God has given us a free gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life, a life that was paid for by the shedding of the perfect, sinless blood of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. The privilege of our position in Jesus is our access to God, as children of God by faith and joint-heirs with Jesus in the kingdom of God.
Therefore, we offer our hearts, bodies, and souls back to God as our relationship with Him grows stronger and stronger every day. We do this through our prayer lives, the in-depth study of God's Holy Word, and our surrender to the leading, guiding, and direction of God's Holy Spirit that dwells inside every child of God. And because of our love for our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, we serve others with a joyful heart, as we are directed by the Holy Spirit. Our service to others is for the Glory of God and done because of our love for Jesus and the joy we experience from working through the Holy Spirit to bring others to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
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