Living Stone

Living Stone in Greek:

A name of Jesus pictured in the Greek text: Living Stone in 1 Peter 2:4.

Living Stone in the Greek text of 1 Peter 2:4.

Lithos zaō

Strong’s Concordance numbers: 3037, 2198

Bible reference:

Coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you 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. (1 Pet. 2:4-5)

Living Stone is one of the descriptive names of Jesus (Yeshua‘). The Gospels tell us that He accepted the name “stone” for Himself.1 In this passage, Peter points to Jesus as the fulfillment of a prophecy about a choice cornerstone that was at first rejected by the builders. Later it became to them “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”2 Jesus elicits different reactions from different people; either people consider Him precious or they perceive Him as offensive.

The fact that we are called living stones is an amazing truth—God speaks of us in the same terms as Jesus. But these Bible verses are sandwiched between other verses that instruct us in Christian behavior.3 

 

  1. Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10-11 [↩]
  2. 1 Pet. 2:7-8 quotes Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14, 28:16 [↩]
  3. 1 Pet. 2:1-3, 11-12 [↩]