1 Peter 2
Living Stones Built on the Cornerstone
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Pure Spiritual Milk
2:1Therefore, putting away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all slanders,
2:2like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation,
2:3if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The Living Stone and a Holy People
2:4Coming to Him, a living stone rejected by human beings but chosen and precious before God,
2:5you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
2:6For it stands in Scripture: “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen, precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will certainly not be put to shame.”
2:7Therefore, the honor is for you who believe; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,”
2:8and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, disobeying the word; to this they were also appointed.
2:9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s possession, so that you may proclaim the excellences of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
2:10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I Urge You, as Aliens and Exiles
2:11Beloved, I urge you, as aliens and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly desires that wage war against the soul,
2:12keeping your conduct good among the Gentiles, so that, in the matter in which they slander you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Submission to Human Institutions
2:13Submit yourselves to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether to a king as supreme,
2:14or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good.
2:15For this is the will of God: that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people.
2:16Live as free people, yet without using freedom as a covering for evil, but as slaves of God.
2:17Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Slaves and the Example of Christ
2:18Household slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and considerate but also to the crooked.
2:19For this is grace: if, out of consciousness of God, someone bears sorrows while suffering unjustly.
2:20For what credit is there if, when you sin and are beaten, you endure? But if, when you do good and suffer, you endure, this is grace before God.
2:21For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His footsteps.
2:22He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.
2:23When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but entrusted His cause to the One who judges justly.
2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body upon the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live to righteousness. By His wound you were healed.
2:25For you were wandering like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.