In verse 4 Peter goes on to speak of Christ as a living stone: “To whom coming, a living stone, having been rejected by men, but with God chosen, held in honor.” The Greek word rendered “coming” can also be translated approaching, drawing near, coming forward.
A living stone is one that not only possesses life, but also grows in life. This is Christ for God’s building. Here Peter changes his metaphor from the seed of the vegetable life (1:23-24) to the stone of minerals. The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (2:5). Peter’s thought has gone on from life-planting to God’s building. As life to us, Christ is the seed. For God’s building, He is the stone. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us. Thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature so that we may be built together with others a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16).
The Greek word translated “held in honor” also means precious. It differs from the word found in 1:19. There it denotes preciousness in essence. Here it indicates preciousness as recognized and held in honor.
In verses 6 through 8 Peter has more to say concerning Christ as the stone. Verse 6 says, “Because it is contained in Scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone, a cornerstone held in honor, and he who believes on Him shall by no means be put to shame.” This indicates that Christ is a stone chosen by God as the cornerstone for His building (Eph. 2:20). In Ephesians 2:20 Paul speaks of “Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” In that verse, as here, Christ is referred to not as the foundation, but as the cornerstone, because the main concern is not the foundation but the cornerstone that joins together the two walls, one of the Jewish believers and the other of the Gentile believers. When the Jewish builders rejected Christ, they rejected Him as the cornerstone (Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7), which would join the Gentiles to them for the building of God’s house.
In 2:7 Peter continues, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness; but to the unbelieving, A stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner.” In Greek the word for “preciousness” is a kindred word to honor in verses 4 and 6. The very Christ chosen by God as a stone, even a cornerstone held in honor, is the preciousness to His believers. But to the unbelieving He is a rejected, despised stone.
The “builders” in this verse were the Jewish leaders in Judaism (Acts 4:11), who were supposed to build the house of God. They rejected Christ to the uttermost. The Lord predicted this to them (Matt. 21:38-42).
Literally, “became” means “became unto.” Christ became the head of the corner in resurrection. In his early preaching Peter had already declared this to the Jews (Acts 4:10-11).
Verse 8 says, “And, A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.” This verse reveals that the reliable Christ (v. 6), being rejected, became a stumbling stone, at which the rejecting Judaizers stumbled (Matt. 21:44). The relative pronoun “which” refers to the Jews’ disobedience with the result of stumbling.
In verse 4 Peter makes a leap from the milk of the word to the living stone. There does not seem to be a bridge or any other kind of connection between the milk and the stone. First, Peter indicates that the Lord is the milk and the word for nourishment. Then he goes on to speak of Him as the living stone.
According to verse 4, we need to come to Christ as the living stone. But what is the way to come to Him? We come to the Lord by drinking the milk of the word. Have you ever realized that when you are drinking milk from the word, that is your coming to the Lord? What is the milk in the word? That milk is the Lord Himself. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord. Do you have some other way of coming to the food you eat? What is your way of coming to the food? Do you not come to it by eating it? We all come to the food by eating it. The same is true with respect to coming to Christ as the living stone. In verse 4 the word “coming” is equal to drinking. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord.
We have pointed out that Peter seems to leap from the milk-Christ to the stone-Christ. This implies that the milk becomes the stone. How can this be? With us, this is impossible, but it is not impossible with the Lord, because He is all-inclusive. As the all-inclusive One, Christ is milk, and He is also the stone. We are not able to exhaust all the aspects of Christ. He is the milk, He is the bread, and now we see that He is the stone. According to 2:6-8, Christ is not only the stone for building, but also the stone for stumbling and grinding. Even as the stone Christ is all-inclusive: He can build us, or He can cause us to stumble, and even grind us.
We need more experience of Christ as the milk and the stone. In the morning we should drink Christ as milk from the Word. Then during the day the process of transformation should take place within us. In the evening we should come to the church meetings and fellowship with the saints. This is building. Here we see that in the morning Christ is milk, and in the evening He becomes the stone. During the day the milk does a transforming work within us to produce a stone.
Those who do not experience Christ as milk may like to be scattered or independent. The elders may visit them and encourage them to come to the meetings. However, these saints do not want to attend the meetings. One such brother once said, “As long as certain persons are in the meeting, I do not want to attend. I don’t want to see their faces. I don’t like to attend the meetings simply because they are present.” But after a time the Lord did something in this case. This brother repented of his attitude toward the particular ones involved. Then he began to have a desire to drink the milk of the word. Because of his drinking the milk, he longed to come to the church meetings. Eventually he was fully reconciled with the saints for the sake of the building.
First the Lord is milk to nourish us. Through the nourishment in the milk of the word, transformation takes place. Then we have the building, where the Lord Himself is the stone. This is the reason that in chapter two we first have the milk and then the stone.