A Living Stone and a Chosen People

1 Peter 2:1–10

Works of art by Unknown artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Unknown Syrian or Palestinian artist
Commentaries by Anna Marazuela Kim

1 Peter 2:1–10

Bible passage (Revised Standard Version)

1 So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander. 2Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; 3for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

4 Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; 5and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a corner, stone chosen and precious,

and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe,

“The very stone which the builders rejected

has become the head of the corner,”

8and

“A stone that will make men stumble,

a rock that will make them fall”;

for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.