1 Peter 1:22–2:10

22Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently: 23having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. 24For,

All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.

The grass withereth, and the flower falleth:

25But the word of the Lord abideth for ever.

And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

2 Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation; 3if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 4unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, 5ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6Because it is contained in scripture,

Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious:

And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.

7For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve,

The stone which the builders rejected,

The same was made the head of the corner;

8and,

A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;

for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

9But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.