Justin Tucker, LHBC Worship Pastor
1 Peter 2:4-6
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,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.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.”
A cornerstone is typically a large slab of concrete placed at a prominent corner on the outside of a building. Most of the time, it has important information on it like the date it was finished. Historically, a cornerstone would have been the first stone laid. It would have been the stone that every other stone is laid on. Any flaws or errors in the cornerstone or the placing of the cornerstone would affect the structural integrity of the whole building. It had to be perfect and strong.
Peter uses this imagery of stones and buildings to talk about our relationship to Christ. Each follower of Christ is their own stone and they have been formed, shaped, prepared, and filled with life in order to be an important part of a house for God. At the very foundation, at the most important position, there’s a stone greater than all the others, a stone stronger than all the others, a stone on which all the others rest — a Cornerstone. His name is Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the cornerstone himself, used similar imagery when he compared two builders in Matthew 7:24–27. One man built his house on the strength and stability of a rock. Storms came with heavy winds and pounded on the little house, but it did not move.It was able to withstand the punishment of the violent weather that came crashing against it.
A second man, Jesus continued, built his house on sand. This time though, the winds and the rain destroyed the little home. There was nothing under the structure that could withstand that kind of pressure and force. The house was helpless, and so it was leveled by the storm.
Jesus painted these two pictures to describe two kinds of people, those who build their hopes and choices and lives on Him, and everyone else. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” – Matthew 7:24. The rock under the first house is Jesus and everything he said. The sand under the ruins of the second house is anything else that tries to claim the position of first place in our hearts, anything that tries to be the cornerstone of our lives.
Jesus’s story is a call to Him, to the Cornerstone. Don’t build your lives on or around what will not last. Find your ultimate purpose, your source of strength, and your fullest satisfaction in Christ, and build your life on the rock of his steadfast love.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your steadfast love. Lord, help me to rest in your strength and stability. Lord, remind that the only thing that I can truly trust in is You. Be my strength, be my foundation. Let everything in my life be built up from You. Thank you Jesus for loving me and saving me. Amen.
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
1 Timothy 2:5-6
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.