◄ What Does 1 Peter 2:6 Mean? ►

Christians and the Church are a special group of people who are holy unto the Lord. We are set apart for a specific purpose in this dispensation of grace. Beginning with 120 in the upper room on that first day of Pentecost, we are being formed, fashioned, and knitted together by God Himself into a sacred, spiritual Temple.

Day after week after decade after centuries of time, men and women of faith have been added to that original number. Each believer is a living stone with their own peculiar gifts and graces and their own unique part to play in the ever-expanding Temple of the most high God.

Each one is being honed, hued, and joined onto this glorious, spiritual building; to live and work for His praise and glory. Each one has been born of the incorruptible Seed of God's precious Word, which lives and abides forever and ever.

Each of us are to lay aside the deceit and hypocrisy of this fallen world and grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. Each of us are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and have a unique part to play, as the Lord Jesus Christ builds His Church and constructs His holy habitation. We may be despised by the world and rejected by men, but we are chosen by God and precious to Him.

In the previous verse, Peter explains that as Christians and members of Christ's Body, we are living Stones who are being built into a spiritual house for His use. We are a peculiar people and a royal priesthood who are ordained to offer spiritual sacrifice and service to the Lord; prayers and praises acceptable to God, THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this verse, Peter reaches back into the Old Testament to illustrate this beautiful truth, and quoting from Isaiah 26 we read: "For it stands in Scripture: 'Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and valuable cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame!'"

The cornerstone of any important building has to be carefully chosen, tried, and well-tested if its superstructure is to be firmly established. The precious Foundation-Stone upon which the Church is built is Christ. He was chosen of God before the foundation of the world, tried by Satan, and learned obedience by the things He suffered. When tested, He was found to be perfect by His accusers and became the source of eternal salvation for all who trust in Him and obey His Word.

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," was Peter's own beautiful confession, so many years before, and it is upon Jesus, the Christ of God that His holy Temple is being built. Both Peter and Paul were master-builders whose ministries were founded on Christ, the solid Rock and valuable Cornerstone Who stands fast in the fiercest drought and remains immovable in the most ferocious storm.

Centuries of living stones have become a solid superstructure built on Him, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. No-one can lay any other foundation than Christ and those who build their life on Him will never be put to shame, but will carry out good works prepared by God, and they will be rewarded with gold, silver, and costly stones, when tried and tested in the furnace of life.

Praise God for Jesus, the precious Cornerstone, the foundation Stone laid in Zion Who died for our sins and rose again, according to the Scriptures. Praise God that: "The one who believes in Him will never, ever be put to shame!"

Heavenly Father, what a privilege and joy to be a living stone that is being built on Christ, my God and Saviour. He is the Chief Cornerstone and Foundation Stone, and without Him nothing could be built. Thank You that as part of His Body, I am a member of the Church and part of His royal priesthood, which has been built up over centuries of time into the living Temple of God. Thank You, in Jesus' name, AMEN.