Living Stones
The writers of the New Testament used many different illustrations and figurative language to describe the church of Jesus Christ. We see the church referred to as a New Man, as a Bride, as a Soldier, as a Temple or House, and as a Body. With each picture we see how many members become a whole in order to fulfill a purpose.
The church is not a physical building, an organization or even a meeting. It is a people that have been placed together to express the person of Jesus Christ to the world. Peter refers to the believers as “living stones” being built together to form a spiritual house. In so many parts of the Christian world, the church is seen more as a pile of stones. The main objective is to have a lot of people in one place. Many programs are designed to attract the crowds and success is seen in the ability to have the biggest and most dynamic of meetings. In this picture of the church, the temptation is for the best to rise to the top. Though this may mean stepping on peoples to get there, the goal is to get to the top of the pile. It is similar to an experience I had as a boy growing up in Alaska. My friends and I used to play “king of the mountain in the piles of snow left by the snowplow. The objective was to get to the top of the snow pile and that meant pulling down whoever was there first.
This is not the picture we have in I Peter. A house is not a pile of stones but stones that have been built together. A short time ago I had an addition built onto our house. I was surprised how careful the builders were to reinforce the foundation. You have to have a good foundation before you can begin to build the walls. The foundation we are all built upon is the cross of Jesus Christ. The work of the cross in our lives deals with the wiggly effect of being a living stone. We can’t be a rolling, wondering stone any longer. We must find our place along side some, over others and under still others to be built into the habitation of God, His Holy Temple. This speaks of submission to authority, faithfulness to friends and responsible discipleship. Our advancement and the completion of the work, depends not on our “getting to the top, but on our supporting the weight, (ministries), of others.
Scriptures to meditate on: I Peter 2.4-10; Ephesians 4.11-16; 2.21; Revelations 21.22-27; Hebrews 3.1-6.