⁴And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, ⁵you also, 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.

Just as God is holy, so we also should live holy lives. And we must understand that we are living stones just as Jesus is a living stone. We must cling to this imagery in suffering and persecution. Seeing ourselves as God sees us, as “choice and precious,” frames how we think about our circumstances.

Too often, we fall into the self-destructive preoccupation with the real or imagined threats of the world against us. Remember the fearful report the spies in Kadesh Barnea brought back to Israel after surveying the Promised Land:

“There also we saw the Nephilim . . . and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Num. 13:33)

Their fear, and their wrong assumptions of how the inhabitants of the land perceived them, made them insecure. Little did they realize the inhabitants were terrified of Jews (read Rahab’s comments in Joshua 2:9–11). Israel suffered forty years in the desert because they believed their misperception of themselves rather than believe God saw them as victorious, able to defeat their enemies.

We should see ourselves as God sees us. We are His special people. While we are obviously not perfect, He sees us as a work in progress, a temple, uniquely and intentionally choosing us to fit together perfectly. Communally, we believers are His residence here on earth. God is everywhere present in the world and especially present in the fellowship of believers. Jesus said, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). When Christians gather, particularly in good fellowship and harmony, God sees us as a temple where He enjoys being at home.

In this image of ourselves, we are priests ministering to Him with our spiritual sacrifices. The context of our passage suggests that the sacrifices we bring as priests involve laying on the altar our behaviors of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander (1 Peter 2:1). This is acceptable to God. This lines up with what Paul called “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom 12:1b).

We are God’s temple and His priests, mediating God’s grace, forgiveness, encouragement to each other. We are all in this together, and we need each other as we face life’s troubles.

Lord, thank You for showing how You see me; that’s the image I want to live by.