1 Peter 2:1-12 The Living Stone and a Spiritual House

Peter is writing this letter to churches who are going through persecution, causing many believers in Jesus to scatter throughout the Roman Empire, which also helped to spread the Gospel of Jesus to more and more people, but at the same time there are those who are beginning to wonder if God had abandoned them, if God really cared for them. Many newer believers came from pagan backgrounds and had worshipped gods who used humanity for their own purposes and then would abandon and neglect them until the god wanted something else or got bored and played with them. I wonder if now some of them are beginning to wonder if Jesus is the same as their old gods.

Peter writes to offer them hope and meaning in the middle of their suffering, encouraging them to stand firm in their faith, pointing them to Jesus who understands suffering and persecution. This is one of the great strengths of the church, that we don’t walk alone, that when we get discouraged, when it seems the world has turned against us, God brings people into our lives who encourage and bless us, who are able to help us keep our eyes on Jesus and to see how he is present, even in the middle of chaos and crisis. We have hope because, as Peter mentions in chapter 1, we can stand firm in the tempests of life and hold onto our hope because Jesus rose from death to life, defeating Satan and death. It’s in the hard times that our faith is proven true and is strengthened.

Because Jesus has given us new life and new hope, Peter calls us to continue in the Jesus way, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like new born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you might grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good,” and “I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day he visits us.”

We’re never promised easy lives when we accept Jesus as our Lord and follow him. Jesus himself called us to carry our crosses, warned us that we would be persecuted if we follow him, but he also promises us the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us and give us strength. Jesus knows suffering and persecution; he was rejected and unjustly sentenced to death as a blasphemer and traitor. But Peter also reminds us that Jesus is also chosen by God and precious to God. We cannot measure how much God loves us by how hard our lives are going, or how disappointing life can be. We know how much God loves us by looking to Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross for our sin so that we can approach God as his holy children fully forgiven for our sin. Satan thought he had God on the ropes when Jesus went to the cross, rejected by both the religious and civic leaders of the time, but Jesus turned it completely around on Satan, defeating him in his resurrection from the grave and now sitting in heaven where all authority has been given to him, including authority over Satan.

Jesus is the foundation and source of our salvation, of our forgiveness and new life. He is “the stone laid in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone.” The Dictionary of Biblical Themes tells us the cornerstone is a “stone that can be in the foundation, above ground level or at the peak of the roof (the “capstone”). The cornerstone of a large building gives it a reliable and firm foundation, leading to the sturdiness and stability of the whole building. In Scripture, such foundation-stones are taken as symbolic of the basis of faith in Jesus Christ and the church. Jesus Christ is represented as both the foundation upon which the church is built, and the capstone which crowns the whole.”

Our faith is built completely on Jesus: his teachings, his life, and all that Scripture reveals to us about Jesus, and what he did on the cross for us and all creation. As the cornerstone of our faith, we know that we are on solid ground when we turn to Jesus, when we shape our lives on who he is and what he has done for us. When the ground seems to be shifting under our feet because life can be chaotic and uncertain, we know that we can always trust Jesus to be our solid foundation in life, a constant source of strength, a sure guide when the way forward feels uncertain, and a reliable presence that never abandons us. Peter keeps pointing us to Jesus as the one person we can lean on and trust as he is chosen by God and precious to God and so is everyone who are living stones because we are in Jesus. Being precious to God means Jesus is highly esteemed, highly valued by God because Jesus is his only begotten son who has taken the sin of the world on himself to redeem the world and begin the process of restoring the creation back into a right relationship with God.

What is this building then that Jesus is the cornerstone to? Peter tells us that we are like living stones and we are being used to build a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. Peter here is talking about the church, the house of God here in earth. We are a living house, living out the kingdom of God here on earth, offering the world a glimpse of what heaven is like, a place of grace, forgiveness, acceptance, love; a place where you are encouraged to discover and use the gifts you have to make our community a better place for everyone, a place of shalom where everyone has an opportunity to flourish and experience God’s blessings.

A big part of what we do, according to Peter, is offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Paul calls us in Romans 12 “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” This is about how we live, this is all about being and becoming who God has created us to be as people in his image.

Yet it’s more than that. Peter calls us to be part of the holy priesthood. Our spiritual sacrifices are offering our lives in service to God to draw people back to him. Priests stand between the people and God, offering sacrifices that bridge the gap between God and the people, seeking God’s forgiveness and his blessings on the people. Our spiritual sacrifices begin with prayer for the people in our lives and around us who haven’t yet accepted him as their Lord and Saviour, praying for the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, praying that Jesus will reveal himself to them in a way that draws them to himself. Then, as we go about our lives, living good lives so that the people can see our good deeds, we look for, and even arrange for opportunities to share our faith, to share why even when life is difficult, or especially when things don’t go well, we trust in Jesus as the foundation of our life.

But it’s also true that Jesus is a stone that causes some people to stumble, a rock that makes them fall because they simply cannot accept Jesus as their Lord, they cannot accept that they are not the center of their own lives, that Jesus loves them that he calls them to shape their lives on him. When they come up against Jesus, the cornerstone doesn’t bend or beak, they break and stumble and fall instead. The glorious news is that Jesus still loves them, is willing to pick them up and bring healing into they stubbornness and hurt. Our cornerstone stays strong and firm through anything life or Satan can throw against him, and we are able to connect to that strength and stability when our lives are chaotic and broken because we are living stones built on Jesus.

Let’s finish with the lyrics of a song by Hillsong called Cornerstone that goes like this:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

When Darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
My anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all