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Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him.

And now God is building you, as a living stone, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:41 Peter 2:4
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
4 Come to Jesus Christ. He is the living stone that people have rejected, but which God has chosen and highly honored.

WP-Bible plugin NLT

This new life we have in Christ has given us new purpose. We are priests. We are agents of reconciliation. We offer peace to a world in desperate need of it. Our new life is not just to be shared with God and other believers. We must venture out!

This is nothing new, really. You see, the Jews of Christ’s time had a similar calling. They were to be the picture of a nation in relationship with God. They were the priests that were to offer an example of harmony to the world.

Obviously, something went wrong. Along the way, the physical temple became such a focus of their being that they rejected its support, Christ. They were so focused on themselves that God was nauseated by the stink of their sacrifices.

Rather than wait on the world to come to Him, God has commanded us to take the message to the streets. Our daily lives and past experiences are opportunities to offer transformation to a broken world.

Whether we will be successful depends on the content of our message. Do we offer self-help, or Christ’s help? Are we quicker to condemn, or forgive? Are our weaknesses and failures corrected or hidden?

Will they see us, or Jesus in us?

reflect

We don’t talk about priests a lot. But mediation between God and man was well understood by the early Christian and pagan world.

• What is so important about the fact that you are “God’s holy priests”?
• What are the “spiritual sacrifices that please him [God]”?