Who am I? What am I supposed to do? At some point, everyone asks these fundamental questions about identity. How we answer to these questions, whether consciously or not, determines much of how we live out our lives. These questions become even more important when we are faced with trials and suffering. When living as Jesus commands draws the ire and opposition of the culture, there is an enormous temptation to conform or compromise. Yet, when we trust in how God, in Christ, has answered those two questions, we are braced to stand regardless of societal pressure.

This is what Peter shows us in 1 Peter 2:4-10. Using several Old Testament passages, he demonstrates that believers are living stones being built up into a spiritual house by God. As we come to Jesus, we are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a community united with one another for His name. But since the same gospel that gives us a new nature is an offense to the world, we are also an offense. That is who we are – living stones built upon one who is both a cornerstone and a stone of offense.

Peter also tells us what we are to do when facing the opposition of the world and the pressure to compromise with its values and practices – we have been called out “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pt. 2:9).