Peter compares us as believers to newborn babies, and then to the stones used to construct a building being built on the Cornerstone i.e. Jesus.

Here is the video link:

1 Peter 2:1-8

The audio links are to the right, as usual.

 

Here is the transcript for today’s episode:

Chapter 2

2:1-3 the innocence of being a Newborn

1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

I get the sense that Peter is contrasting an older, jaded adult who is lost in the ugliness of adult living with the pure and innocent life of a newborn who has yet to experience the scarring effects of growing up in this fallen world. A new born baby desires only to be next to their mother, drinking her milk, with not a care in the world, depending on their mother for everything, content to just be wherever their mother is. That is the environment a newborn baby grows up in – and that is the environment that Peter says we should live in as we “grow up in our salvation”. Be where God is, simplify our lives and feeding daily on the “milk of God’s Word”. It occurs to me that the only thing that sustains a newborn baby is its mother’s milk. Without that, it dies. The baby instinctively craves this. We should be the same – our first instinct should be to turn and even LOOK for God and His Word. Just as the newborn baby is nourished and gains strength and matures, so the Christian gains strength and maturity from God and grows to be strong and durable, just as a stone is durable.

2:4-8 The Cornerstone

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

“As you “continually come” to Him…an ongoing process of continuing to come to Him. This fits in with Paul’s view of the Christian life – which is one of ongoing salvation… we were saved (justification), we are being saved (sanctification) and we will be saved (glorification). Our present ongoing sanctification implies our continuing “coming to Him” as Peter says here. Peter equates Jesus to being a living Stone, and as we walk in our ongoing sanctification, we become like Him – living stones – and are built by Him into a spiritual house alongside other living stones. This is a beautiful picture of the Church. We are stones, built upon the foundation provided by God, in which our Saviour is the Cornerstone.

The great new truth Peter states here is the revelation that “through Jesus Christ,” i.e., through his work on the Cross, every Christian is part of a new priestly order. This truth of the “priesthood of all believers” was rediscovered and re-stressed during the Reformation. It means that all Christians have immediate access to God, that they serve God personally, that they minister to others, and that they have something to give. If you look at the Tabernacle and how the priests functioned within that Tabernacle in the early days of Israel’s wandering you get a wonderful picture of how those priests interacted with God and the non-priests, giving us present-day believers an example of how we are to live.

6 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.”[b]

The quotation of Isa 28:16 refers to God’s foundation stone, carefully chosen and very costly, placed in position in Zion. The picture is from the building of a temple. At great cost and care the corner foundation stone was obtained, moved, and laid. Once in place, the rest of the building was determined. Isaiah uses this figure to encourage his people to build on the Lord himself, the one who is immovable and unchangeable. As Peter applies this, God has set Jesus forth in Jerusalem as the foundation of the new temple. Whoever builds on this foundation will be established and will never be ashamed (cf. 1Co 3:10; Eph 2:20).

Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament Copyright 2004.

Great care is taken in placing the cornerstone of a Synagogue, so that it is oriented to be pointing towards Jerusalem.

According to the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) in synagogues, the Ark should be placed such that “worshipers may pray in the direction of the Holy Land and the place of the Sanctuary in Jerusalem”.^[7] When synagogues are erected, they are built to face Jerusalem.

Ina Taylor also says “In ancient times the Jews’ most sacred possessions were the two tablets of stone carrying the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses. These stones were originally kept in a box called the aron hakodesh, or holy ark, and carried around by the Jews during their years in the desert. When they eventually settled in Israel the aron hakodesh was housed in the Temple of Jerusalem. Because of its precious contents, the Temple became the focal point for prayers. Today Jews still face that direction when they pray, and all synagogues are built facing Jerusalem.”

Taylor, Ina (2001). Judaism with Jewish Moral Issues. Nelson Thornes. ISBN 978-0-7487-5685-8.

7 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,”[c]

8 and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”[d]

wow. This is hard. First – the cornerstone orients the building, and is the focal point of the entire foundation and construction of the building. The picture here is the builders rejection of the very thing that will ensure their building be oriented correctly and solidly. Obviously this is a picture of those in the world that reject the Christ as their cornerstone. Their building i.e. their life is without direction and is not built on a solid footing. This is not innocent ignorance on their part – this is a willful rejection of the cornerstone. These builders do not want the cornerstone offered them. They put it aside. The picture I get is of a cornerstone pushed aside, and yet this cornerstone trips them up continually, being always in their way.

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

All who ignore and therefore disobey the Gospel message will stumble and fall. That is the destiny of all those who do not bow their knee to the Christ.

It’s a good place to stop. There’s a lot to think about. I am going to spend the rest of my day thinking on what it means to be a baby, craving the milk of God’s word. I’m going to go about my day thinking about the cornerstone and thinking about how with Christ as my cornerstone, my life has alignment. I’m aligned correctly and I’m being built by Him on that foundation along with my fellow brothers and sisters in the body of Christ to be a spiritual temple here in the midst of a land that could really care less. In fact, they reject us. They reject the cornerstone. They reject our foundation and they are aimless. And they will one day be put to shame. There’s a lot to think on.

Blessings!