1 Peter 2:4–12

⁴to whom you are drawing near, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in the sight of God. ⁵And you yourselves, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone,

and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”^b

⁷Therefore the honor is for you who believe, but for those who refuse to believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected,

this one has become the cornerstone^c,”

⁸and

“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,”^d

who stumble because they^* disobey the word to which also they were consigned. ⁹But you are a chosen race,^e a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, ¹⁰who once were not a people, but now are the people of God, the ones who were not shown mercy, but now are shown mercy.^f

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your^* soul, ¹²maintaining your good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, by seeing your good deeds they may glorify God on the day of visitation.