Living Stones and the Chief Cornerstone

Many people are familiar with the words of 1 Peter 2:4-10, where God's people are called a royal priesthood, and are described as living stones, with Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.  It's a great picture of God's people, built up by God, all in line with Jesus, and being built as God's spiritual house in this world.

A couple of nights ago, I was talking about this section with my friend Bill.  Bill had a rather startling insight that I think is really worth sharing.  Lately, I've been focusing a lot on our community of faith, and what it looks like for that community to be built up in Jesus, showing love to one another, and the great variety of ways that God has given for us to do so. 

That's when Bill said something rather profound.  He said you can't really call yourself a spiritual house if you are a brick sitting on top of the cornerstone all by yourself.  In fact, if a good wind came along, you might even be blown off of top of the cornerstone.  Sadly, there are many Christians who don't feel like they "need" to be a part of a community of faith, and so, in many respects, they are like this solitary brick.  Are they still on the cornerstone?  It's likely, but, as Bill pointed out next, they truly are missing out on something.

Think of the difference between that solitary brick on top of the cornerstone, and then the whole wall of bricks, built together, mortar sealing them to one another (the mortar of faith, of forgiveness, of godly love to one another).  The same wind that might knock that solitary brick off has little effect on the whole wall.  The individual bricks of the wall receive strength from their connections with the other bricks, and are able to withstand much more than the single brick.

Likewise, the brick that simply sits upon the cornerstone all alone has no form or structure to it.  It could be aligned along the edge of the cornerstone, or it could sit diagonally, or even on one end.  But the bricks that are built together to form the wall are aligned with the cornerstone, and help serve to keep one another in that proper alignment.  Their strength is in the proper alignment with the cornerstone and with one another.

I even see Bill's insight, which he shared with me, as part of this.  All alone, he might know this, but when it is shared with the rest of his fellow bricks, it serves to give us even more strength as we live life together as fellow bricks in God's spiritual house.