WEDNESDAY August 23rd
1 Peter 2:4–5a
‘As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house . . .’
Today in our verses we have the words ‘stone’ and ’stones’. But preceding these is the word ‘living’. This word has already cropped up in this epistle, first in chapter 1 verse 3 where we read of the ‘living hope’, then in chapter 1 verse 23 the ‘living and abiding word of God’, now in chapter two it is ‘living stone’, verse 4 and ‘living stones’ verse 5.
Let’s get excited about this word ‘living’ for the opposite would be to be dead! And that is what we were, dead in our trespasses and sins, but in Christ, through new birth we have been quickened or made alive.
In the context of these verses, Christ is the living stone, he is the living stone because he is in himself life and he has also become the cornerstone. What about living stones, well to really be alive, to be truly living as men and women can only be the experience of those who have come to know the ‘living stone’ and once we do we become the ‘living stones’.
But why stones? Well Peter is painting a picture here for us of the Church, he is using his own way of expressing exactly the same as Paul does when he talks of the church in language that says that we are the body and Christ is the head. In Paul’s language as the body we are connected to Christ as the head and so it is from the head, Christ, that everything in regard to the body, the church must flow. Peter says that Christ as the living stone is also the cornerstone and it is as attached to him as the cornerstone we as living stones must be set.
As Paul was illustrating the Church as a spiritual body, Peter is illustrating it as a spiritual building that is made up of all who have come to faith who as a result have become living stones and are joined to the one who is the cornerstone.
Connection is important in regard to the Church, we must be connected to Christ and at the same time we must be connected to each other. We who have come to faith are all living stones and Christ’s intention is for us to be joined together.
We are joined together because we have become the family of God, but we are also joined together because we need each other, thus we are joined together for the purpose of fellowship.
This means that a ‘living stone’ that does not participate in fellowship with other believers is out of sync with what Christ desires for his Church, he or she is disconnected and disobedient to the instruction of Scripture to ‘not neglecting to meet together’ (Hebrews 10:25) and using the language which Jesus used himself in John 15 to describe the being connected and fellowship they run the risk of becoming a fruitless branch, which eventually will be cut off.
I bring a challenge here to any who read or listen to this devotion, wherever you may be from for these devotions are read by others who are not a part of our local Church here in Gateshead., if you are forsaking fellowship with other Christians, please consider where you really are in your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with those who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, and seek to make every effort to place yourself again into a place of fellowship, for us in Gateshead, if something legitimately prevents attendance on a Sunday, remember we meet for prayer and Bible study in the week and you can be in fellowship then