Note Peter’s architectural instructions;1 Peter 2:4-8

Coming to Him as a living  stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 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.” 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,” and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

 This text provides us some insight into another text, Matthew 16:18, especially since Christ was speaking to Peter in that text.  This text in 1 Peter illuminates what Christ meant by “upon this rock I build my church.”  Who is the rock that Jesus is building the church upon?  Is it Peter (whose name means rocky), or is it Christ?  I think it is clear here that Peter understood Jesus to mean that Jesus was the rock upon which the church is built.  This is why the gates of hades will not prevail upon the church, because the stone upon which it is built is the Son of Man!

Also, notice what is being built upon the cornerstone, “living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.”  This is a powerful truth for the church to realize.  The spiritual house, or the house of God, which is so often in view when people talk about a building made out of wood and brick, is actually made out of people.  Let me state this another way.  The house of God is built out of those who have faith in Christ.  Thus, even when there is no church building, as is the case in so many places, the church exists just as much as it does in places where there are buildings made of wood and brick.

The implications here should really change the way we live.  Why?  Because when we realize that we are a spiritual building, that we are actually part of Christ’s body ALL the time, not just when we meet together in a building, we should come to realize that EVERYTHING we do should be an act of worship.  Our Sunday best behavior should be a concept that is foreign to us, because we are always in church, we actually are the church!  This is the meaning here when Peter writes “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  We no longer need an intercessor like a priest for us to approach God in worship because we have an intercessor who completed the job.  The amazing truth here is that we are in His presence all the time, so we should be worshipping all the time.

There is so much more in this text to observe, especially about the rejection of the cornerstone.  Maybe we will deal with that tomorrow, or you could leave your thoughts below on the other verses.