Living Stones

1 Peter 2: 4-10

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. For in Scripture it says:

"See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Isaiah 28:16

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," Psalm 118:22

and,

"A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." Isaiah 8:14

They stumble because they disobey the message - which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once 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.