22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for ba sincere brotherly love, clove one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 dsince you have been born again, enot of perishable seed but of imperishable, through fthe living and abiding word of God; 24 for

g“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

25  hbut the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word iis the good news that was preached to you.

A Living Stone and a Holy People

2 jSo put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 kLike newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual lmilk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have mtasted that the Lord is good.

4 As you come to him, a living stone nrejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 oyou yourselves like living stones are being built up as pa spiritual house, to be qa holy priesthood, rto offer spiritual sacrifices sacceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:

t“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

uand whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7 So the honor is for you who vbelieve, but for those who vdo not believe,

w“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”1

8 and

x“A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, yas they were destined to do.

9 But you are za chosen race, aa royal bpriesthood, ca holy nation, da people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you eout of darkness into fhis marvelous light. 10 gOnce you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.