Bible Strands
1 Peter 2:4
As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Peter writes to scattered believers under social hostility, in the moment after they have "tasted that the Lord is good" (v.3) and just before he tells them they are being built into a spiritual house (v.5).
The words — λίθον ζῶντα (lithon zōnta), "a living stone," is a deliberate oxymoron: stone is the emblem of the dead and inert, yet here it breathes. The contrastive particle μὲν ("indeed") flags that a counter-statement is coming.
The thread — The rejected-stone motif runs from Psalm 118:22 through Acts 4:11 to 1 Peter 2:7, where Peter splits the verse into a two-sided verdict: precious to believers, a stumbling block to unbelievers.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop measuring Christ by the world's rejection and start measuring the world by God's verdict. The identity claim is not "you are safe" but "you are built on a stone the world called worthless."
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
Cross-references
- Psalms 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Acts 4:11 This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
- 1 Peter 2:7 To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
- Isaiah 28:16 So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
- Luke 20:17 But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
- Zechariah 3:9 See the stone I have set before Joshua; on that one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave on it an inscription, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
- Mark 12:10 Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Daniel 2:34 As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.
- Isaiah 42:1 “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.
- Zechariah 4:7 What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”