TUESDAY
All right, all right! I know I can’t have a title like that without everyone singing Cornerstone. So go ahead and give it a quick listen. I linked you to it below.
1 Peter 2:4–10 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Remember, Peter has switched metaphors from the family to the temple now. Yesterday we saw the big idea of this passage—”you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…” Now he quotes a few Old Testament passages to reinforce this idea.
In verse 6 he quotes Isaiah 28:16. In this passage Isaiah is prophesying against the leaders of Israel. He calls them scoffers and criticizes them for making a covenant with death (most likely referencing an alliance with Egypt). They have made lies their refuge and falsehood their shelter instead of trusting in God. It’s unclear what the stone is in the Isaiah passage, but it is a line of demarcation. Isaiah says that God will do something in Israel to establish his people. Whoever believes in this stone will not be put to shame. Peter links this stone to Jesus. In Jesus we find what God has done to save his people.
Those who believe in him will not be put to shame. The shame Isaiah has in mind is the humiliation of being taken captive by Assyria. His readers were being shamed by their society as a way of pressuring them to conform to the religion and common practices of the Roman world. In verse 7 he reminds his readers that this stone means honor for them. So he contrasts the attempts at shame from the culture with the honor that they have in Christ.
Jesus, Peter says, is the cornerstone. The term cornerstone could be the large stone placed in the corner of a foundation that joins two walls of the foundation together. It could also be the capstone—the middle, top piece of an arch that holds the whole thing together. Either way, it is the most important piece of the structure. It is the preeminent piece. Without it the whole building would fall apart.
Interestingly, in this passage there is no hint of Peter thinking of himself as the cornerstone, or even a more important stone than anyone else. In fact, later in the letter he will refer to himself as “a fellow elder” (5:1). This would have been a good time to remind the church of what Jesus told him when he changed his name to Peter (meaning rock).
Matthew 16:18 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This lends support to the interpretation that the rock was Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus. At the very least Peter did not view himself as possessing the authority that the Catholic church gives to the pope. Peter has already taught the priesthood of all believers and now teaches that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.
There are a couple of applications of this that are vitally important for the church today. Jesus is the only cornerstone of the church. Without him the whole thing falls apart. This means the church must be dependent on Christ. We need to abide in him if we are to do anything in ministry. So often we try to do the work of Christ in our own strength, with our own abilities and resources and end up getting outside of what Christ is doing to build his church. We easily lose sight of the way of Christ in the effort to expand the kingdom of Christ. That doesn’t work. Everything we do in the church must be built upon the cornerstone of Christ.
As believers, we must also remember that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church, not a prominent pastor or church leader or anyone else. Abuse from church leaders has sadly become well known. Moral failings of prominent, high profile church leaders has become news fodder. In this environment, we must remember that our faith is built on Jesus. He is the perfectly righteous one. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. So we should always look to him as the cornerstone of the church and put our trust in him.
Additional Content
Reflection
Commit to Christ being the one through whom all of your worship is acceptable to God. He is the one through whom our work for God is effective. It must be built on him and no one else. Abide in him for your structural support in life and ministry.
Commit to putting your hope fully in Jesus and no other Christian leader. They can help guide you towards Christ but that is the ultimate goal—Christ. He is the preeminent one. He is the one our faith is built on. Don’t give another leader influence over Christ in your life and spiritual formation.