Call to Commitment

 

Chapter 2

 

A Cornerstone with accompanying Living Stones  

1.     Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 

      2.      as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 

      3.       if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 

4.      Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 

5.      you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

6.    Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHIEF CORNERSTONE, ELECT, PRECIOUS, AND HE WHO BELIEVES ON HIM WILL BY NO MEANS BE PUT TO SHAME." 

7.      Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE," 

8.      and "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 

9.      But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 

10.  who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 

 The New Testament does not teach that Christianity is something to be added to a person’s natural, sinful existence. As in our chapter, verse 1, there must first be a laying aside, before any Christian ingredient can be added. This principle is confirmed by Paul in Ephesians 4:22 and 24: “Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man… put on the new man…”  He teaches it again to the Colossians: “You have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man…” (Col.3:9, 10).