1 Peter 2:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus the prophet proclaims that faith will enter the stony hearts of the Gentiles. The prophecy declares that, through faith, those in whom hardness of heart had produced a petrified soul will become sons of Abraham.

Their soul had taken on an insensible and irrational nature. The apostolic word likened to living stones those men strengthened by the power of faith: “And you, as living stones, build yourselves up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices.”

The prophetic word wisely likened to stones those men who had so lost human reason and feeling that they themselves became stones. This was not in body, but in soul, since they acknowledged a divine image in stones.

The descendants of Abraham according to the flesh were also called rulers of Sodom and whitewashed walls (cf. Is 1:10; Acts 23:3). Therefore noble descent is proved not by a long line of ancestors, but by likeness in conduct.

It is also through the sanctifying and life-giving mysteries of the Holy Church.

"You yourselves," that is, each one separately must build himself up in this common construction, and all must build one another up mutually. Each cares for another, and therefore all care for all.

"A spiritual house": the house is a temple, according to the context, where sacrifices were offered. But this is a spiritual temple, in contrast to a material one.

It is spiritual because it is built from living stones, animated by the Spirit of God, morally perfected in the spirit, and living by the spirit.

As a house or temple composed of many separate stones and made up of different parts forms one whole, so the Christian community must be one whole, though it consists of many individual members.

The thought without the image is this: standing firm on faith in Christ, the Redeemer of the world, be morally perfected, each one individually and each one in relation to all.

Thus all of you, in relation to all, should become as it were a spiritual temple in which God dwells.

"A holy priesthood," which you build from yourselves, means that you should be a holy community of priests.

As God in the Old Testament had His temple and His priests, who served Him in His house, especially by offering sacrifices, so it is also in the New Testament.

Only here the whole community must be both temple and priests. Since this entire discourse of the Apostle is not literal but figurative, it must be understood in a transferred sense.

Thus the expression "holy priesthood" must also be understood in a transferred sense. It does not mean priesthood as a special class of persons appointed in the Church for teaching, performing the mysteries, and governing.

This latter priesthood is not abolished by the universal priesthood. On the contrary, it serves as an image for expressing the thought of the high calling of all Christians.

"To offer spiritual sacrifices": the chief calling of the Old Testament priests was to offer in the temple before God the material sacrifices established by God.

So each Christian separately, and the whole community as one body, must offer spiritual sacrifices to God. For they themselves constitute a spiritual temple, and God is Spirit, to whom service must be rendered in spirit and truth (Jn 4:23-24; cf. note).

What are these spiritual sacrifices? In general, they are the sacrifices of virtue.

Virtue is so difficult for sinful human nature, and must be accompanied by such struggle, that in practicing it a person as though offers a sacrifice to God.

He suppresses sinful passions, or in general the old man with his deeds, for the perfection of the spiritual man.

Thus the holy Apostle Paul beseeches Christians to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God for rational service (Rom 12:1). This is not only once at some time, but constantly and without interruption (cf. Lk 9:23).

All particular good works, such as prayer, self-denial, works of mercy and love, and so forth, are spiritual sacrifices of the Christian to God (cf. Heb 13:15-16; 1 Jn 3:16; Phil 4:18, and others).

Yet because all such sacrifices, through human weakness, are not always and not fully perfect, they can be pleasing to God only through Jesus Christ.

They are pleasing through His protection, power, intercession, grace, and love for mankind.

The Christian, as a priest, is obliged to offer all these sacrifices both personally and through the order of priesthood established by Christ. This priesthood is a special mediation between Him and those who believe in Him, for their salvation.

In the Church, all must gradually grow unto salvation. Yet there must also be sacred persons who can offer sacrifices higher than those offered in the Old Testament.

These sacrifices must be more fruitful. They must express the fullest self-offering to God and be wholly pleasing to Him.

Such a sacrifice can only be a person’s entire life. It consists of all his outward and inward good works, in accord with the spirit of Christian teaching and performed in communion with Jesus Christ, through faith in His redeeming sacrifice.

Jesus Christ was already depicted under the image of a living stone in Daniel’s prophetic vision (cf. Dan 2:34, 44, 45). He Himself applied to Himself David’s prophecy concerning the cornerstone (cf. Mt 21:42).

Many apostles also assigned this image to Him (cf. Rom 9:33; Acts 4:11). Jesus Christ called Peter a stone. He also calls all believers to be living stones (cf. Eph 2:22; Heb 3:6).

This means that they are to be firm in faith, and, as far as possible, serve as confirmation and support for one another. In this way they assist the growth and unbreakable firmness of the Church’s standing.

An especially expressive presentation of believers under the image of stones is found in Hermas, an ecclesiastical writer of the late first century.

“Be perfected morally, each separately and each in relation to all. Let your whole community be, as it were, a spiritual temple in which God dwells,” says our native commentator, concluding his explanation of this passage.

Another commentator says: “Christians must daily lift up their hands to Christ and draw near to Him in prayer. From Him they receive strength and grace for every good work, for firmness in every temptation, and for consolation in every sorrow.”

Therefore the Apostle Peter exhorts believers to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. These are prayers, and also works of beneficence and communion in love. “For with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb 13:16).

In the Old Testament, the offering of material sacrifices and the performance of public worship were entrusted to the priestly order. Likewise, in the New Testament Church, special sacred ministers are appointed for the celebration of ecclesial services.

Yet in the Old Testament, besides the priesthood established by God, all members of the chosen people were appointed to be “a royal priesthood and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). That is, they were to offer spiritual sacrifices boldly to the King of heaven.

In the same sense, New Testament believers are called to be a holy priesthood. In the Old Testament, material sacrifices were offered in the temple. Likewise, the outward worship of the New Testament is performed in churches.

Yet besides the material temple, in the Old Testament the whole chosen people were the dwelling place of the God of Israel, or His Church in a spiritual sense (Lev 26:12; 2 Cor 6:16). So also the Apostle Peter calls New Testament believers to form from themselves a spiritual house.

The Apostle Paul says the same of them: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16).

A material temple is built of lifeless stones. Believers in Christ, who together form the temple of God, are the living stones of this temple. They are animated by faith in Christ and, through this faith, are joined as closely as stones are joined in a material building.

The chief foundation of a material temple is its cornerstones. The foundation of the spiritual temple, formed by the community of believers in Christ, is Christ Himself, the living stone. He is life in Himself and the source of spiritual life for believers (Jn 1:4; Jn 5:26; Jn 15:4).

According to the psalmist, He was rejected by the builders, that is, by the leaders of the Jewish people. They cast Him aside. Yet He became the head of the corner, the cornerstone of the Church founded by Him.

Jesus Christ applies these words of the psalmist to Himself (Mt 21:42). The Apostle also refers them to Him (Acts 4:11). The Church founded on this stone (Eph 2:10) is so strong that it will be preserved until the end of the age.

It cannot be overcome by the gates of Hades (Mt 16:18). This is truly the stone “chosen and precious,” as the following verse says on the basis of the Old Testament Scripture.