1 Peter 2

¹Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,

²as newborn babies, long for the pure spiritual milk, that with it you may grow,

³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

⁴Come to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious.

⁵You also as living stones are built up as 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 cornerstone, chosen and precious. He who believes in him will not be disappointed.”

⁷For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,”

⁸and, “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,

¹²having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good works and glorify God in the day of visitation.