The People Of God

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 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.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 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.

1 Peter 2:1-10

Throughout our lives we accumulate a lot of stuff. And we continue to search for stuff that we just can’t do without. While we pile up many things that are important to us, very little of it is really precious. In fact, over time we learn that the most precious things in life are not material items at all.

So, when Peter refers to Jesus as “a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,” it should resonate in our hearts that He is truly precious – our prized possession above everything and everyone else. What would we do without Him? It would be hard to imagine.

Of all that is precious, Jesus tops the list.

Our Daily Bread – May 1, 2013