1 Peter 2

¹Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all slanders,

²like newborn infants, long for the pure rational milk, so that by it you may grow up unto salvation,

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

⁴coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but with God chosen and precious,

⁵and you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶For it is contained in scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, precious, and the one who believes on him will certainly not be put to shame.'

⁷To you therefore who believe belongs the preciousness; but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,

⁸and 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble by being disobedient to the word, 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, so that you may proclaim the excellencies 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; who had not received mercy, but now have received mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly desires, which wage war against the soul;

¹²keeping your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that in the very thing in which they speak against you as evildoers, they may, from observing your good deeds, glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³Be subject therefore to every human institution for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme,

¹⁴or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good;

¹⁵because this is the will of God: by doing good, to silence the ignorance of foolish men,

¹⁶as free people, and not using freedom as a cover for evil, but as slaves of God.

¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

¹⁸Household servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are crooked.

¹⁹For this is grace, if for the sake of awareness of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

²⁰For what credit is it if, sinning and being struck, you endure? But if, doing good and suffering, you endure, this is a grace before God.

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps,

²²who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth,

²³who, when reviled, did not revile in return; when suffering, did not threaten, but kept entrusting himself to the one who judges justly;

²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose wound you have been healed.

²⁵For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.