1 Peter 2 (KJ2000)
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 You also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Peter calls Jesus a living stone.
Then he says you are one too.
That is a strange picture. Stones are usually dead. You can pick one up today, leave it somewhere for twenty years, and come back to find essentially the same stone.
But Jesus is a living stone. He died, rose again, and lives forever. When you came to Him, you received His life. So Peter says, “You also, as living stones.”
But that is only the beginning of the metaphor.
God does not intend to leave His stones lying around.
God Is Building Something
Peter says you “are built up into a spiritual house.”
Think about a building site. A truck can deliver a thousand blocks and dump them beside the road. You now have plenty of building material, but you do not have a house.
The blocks must be arranged.
They must be joined.
Each one must occupy its proper place.
That is what God is doing with believers.
Christianity is personal, but it is not private. God saved you as an individual, but He did not save you to remain isolated from everyone else.
He is building you together with other believers.
Paul uses almost the same picture.
Ephesians 2 (KJ2000)
19 Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
Notice the words.
“Fitly framed together.”
“Built together.”
“A habitation of God.”
God is not merely gathering people. He is building a house.
Jesus Determines Where Everything Goes
Peter calls Jesus the living stone. Paul calls Him the chief cornerstone.
The cornerstone mattered enormously in ancient construction. Once it was properly positioned, the rest of the building took its alignment from it.
That tells you something important about the Church.
Jesus does not fit into our plans. We fit into His.
We do not decide what Christianity should become and then ask Jesus to bless it. He is the cornerstone. Everything must take its direction from Him.
Your beliefs must align with Him.
Your ambitions must align with Him.
Your relationships must align with Him.
Your ministry must align with Him.
If the wall disagrees with the cornerstone, you do not move the cornerstone. You correct the wall.
You Need Other Stones
There is another lesson here that Christians sometimes resist.
A stone by itself cannot be a house.
You may be wonderfully shaped. You may be polished. You may even be an extremely expensive stone.
You are still not a house.
The picture Peter gives us makes independence impossible.
God joins believers together.
This means other Christians will sometimes fail to align with you in the way you would prefer. They may disagree with you. They may have different personalities, backgrounds and levels of maturity.
Welcome to the building.
You cannot say, “I love Jesus, but I have no need for other believers.”
That is like one block announcing that it does not need the rest of the building.
God designed the Church to be corporate.
You need other believers, and other believers need you.
Sometimes God Has to Shape the Stone
Anyone who has watched a mason work knows that building materials sometimes need adjustment.
Something does not fit.
Something sticks out.
Something must be trimmed.
The same thing happens as God builds us together.
Relationships expose things private Christianity can hide.
You may think you are wonderfully patient until you have to work with difficult people.
You may think you are humble until someone else gets the position you wanted.
You may think you walk in love until someone in church annoys you every Sunday for six months.
Then the hammer comes out.
God begins dealing with attitudes, pride, selfishness, offence and stubbornness.
Do not run from the building site every time another stone rubs against you.
God may be shaping you.
The House Has a Resident
The most important thing about this house is not the stones.
It is who lives there.
Paul says we are being built together “for a habitation of God through the Spirit.”
That connects this metaphor directly to the mystery of indwelling.
God lives in you individually.
But Scripture goes further. God also dwells among His people corporately.
The Church is not sacred because of stained glass, pulpits, microphones or expensive buildings.
The people are the building.
You are the living stones.
God is the resident.
That should change the way you think about other believers.
That brother beside you is part of God’s house.
That sister you find difficult is part of God’s house.
That believer who seems less impressive than you is part of God’s house.
Handle God’s stones carefully.
Know What You Are
You are not a spectator standing outside watching God build.
You are part of the building.
Christ is the cornerstone. You have His life in you. God has placed you among His people. He is fitting you together with them into something He intends to inhabit.
So do not live like a loose stone.
Find your place.
Submit to the Builder.
Stay aligned with Christ.
Allow God to shape you.
Learn to live with the other stones.
God is building a house.
And you are one of His living stones.
Continue in grace!