Living The New Life - Coming To The Living Stone

1 Peter 2:1-8

Instead of having malice (hate), guile (deceit), hypocricies, envies, and evil speakings, we are to desire the sincere milk of the word so that we might grow. This is the nature of the new life. We desire the milk of the word of God as a new-born babe desires its mother's milk.

We can do this only if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and he has been gracious to every one of us who has trusted in him as personal Savior. His amazing grace has both surprised us and has blessed us with spiritual blessings.

We came to him (verse 4) as to a living stone. Peter is not the rock, Jesus is. He is both Petra and Lithos (rock and stone). He is the stone that was chosen of God to be our propitiation, our substitute, our Savior. He is precious. Peter uses the word "precious" seven times in his writings. The word precious tells us that he is greater than anything that has been created, and he has a name that is above every name.

We, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house. This house is the kingdom of God, the household of faith. We are also a holy priesthood, the priesthood of the believers. Every believer is a priest of God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). Therefore, we are to send up spiritual sacrifices to him: the sacrifice of ourselves, our talents, our minds, our prayer and praise. These will be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. God has laid in Zion a chief cornerstone, and those who believe on him will not be confounded or ashamed.

To us who believe he is precious, but to those who do not believe, he is disallowed; but Jesus has been made the head of the corner (the Cornerstone) of his kingdom. To the unbelievers, he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. These unbelievers, rather than desiring the sincere milk of the word, stumble at the word of God. They think the word of God is less than precious.

God has determined to save certain people in the earth, and he will save them according to his own will and purpose (Eph. 1:4), but some he has determined to leave in their sinful state. We cannot regard this as an easy doctrine, but it is one that is borne out in scripture time and time again.

The central message of these verses is that we have come to the living stone, and we are to give praise and glory as well as our lives and minds to send up spiritual sacrifices to our God, who saved us by his grace. We should, then, be grateful and thankful that we are the children of God. Let us read our Bibles and desire to know God's word so that we can work for him and send praise to him our whole lives.