# 41 2020 Dev. 1Peter 2:6. The Living Stone! Read verses 1-10. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
1 Peter 2:6 “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.’”
From a living Hope to the Living Stone, from a new birth in Christ to being built into a spiritual house, Peter connects his thoughts in chap. 2 to chap. 1 pointing back to v. 23 “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. And this is the word that was preached to you.” God’s word is still preached today and does not change even as the world changes. Therefore, put aside our brokenness and “crave pure spiritual milk…now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Peter gets theological making a big deal about God choosing; Jesus the living stone is chosen from eternality, God choses His people from before creation into eternity. Jesus, “chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter is speaking about the church; people, worshiping God every day making up the church of Jesus.
Jesus is the cornerstone, and all “who puts their trust in him will never be put to shame.” He is “the stone the builders rejected” referring to the religious leaders at the time but translates to religious leaders today, many of whom have caved to the ways of the world. Jesus is the “stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” We have a friend who very much wanted to be like what this person saw in our family. For months we fellowshipped together and finally this person asked – what does a person have to do to find purpose in one’s life and have the confidence a person is on the right track? It is simple, believe in Jesus, ask Him to forgive you and ask to be empowered to live for Him. Forgive? For what? Well, we are not able to save ourselves, we all have fallen short of God’s laws. The person’s answer: Really, I am not a bad person, I don’t need to be forgiven for anything. In the end the person moved on and we continue to pray.
We asked ourselves – what just happened? What is the responsibility of the individual to choose to believe? Certainly God chooses, and a person must respond by believing, but in the end choosing to believe happens as the Holy Spirit joins with our human ability to choose, people can reject or accept to believe. We are responsible but It is God “who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 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.” Thanks be to God!
© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved
Heavenhigh 