1 Peter 2

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,

⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

⁷To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹²Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.