Wouldn’t it be nice to have a firm foundation for your life, someone on which you can always rely? Well, verse 6 says that Jesus is the cornerstone, the One Who makes provides us the structure and support we need, the assurance that we are in the right place, lined up in accordance with God’s will.

And He does this for all who trust in Him, for all who as verse 4 says have come to Him, for all who as verse 7 says believe on Him. In fact, Peter says that all of us are living stones, built together into one spiritual house. That means we don’t just have Jesus to rely on – we can also lean on all our Christian brothers and sisters, even while we also provide support for them.

And what should a life in such relationship with Christ and with one another look like? Verses 1 and 2 give us a summary. Our relationship with others should be free from self-centered wickedness – instead, we should love others just as much and in the same way that we love ourselves. At the same time, our greatest desire should be for the Word of God – we should crave it just as infants crave their mothers’ milk. Only such immersion in God’s Word can keep us close to Christ and close to one another, just as close as stones are set in a wall.

And just as we long for God to feed us with His Word, the goal of our lives should be to give Him praise and glory. That’s what Peter envisions in verse 5 – just as priests did in the temple, we are to offer up our whole lives to God, devoting all we are and all we have to the One Who gave up everything for us.

Of course, there is another option. It’s possible for us to reject Jesus, just as the religious leaders of the day refused to recognize His authority. It’s possible for us to live as verse 11 says, allowing the passions of our flesh to direct us, and thus deciding for ourselves what’s right and wrong. It’s possible as verse 1 says to treat other people with malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander, trying to build ourselves up by tearing other people down. But those who try to be independent of Christ in this way, those who aren’t joined to Him and His people as the stones are joined together in a wall, well, they are bound to trip over Him sooner or later.

No, it doesn’t make sense to ignore the Son of God. And why should we want to, once we’ve tasted of His kindness, the tremendous sacrifice He has made for us?

I Peter 2:1-12 (ESV)

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation–
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
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.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.