God Calls Us a Spiritual House

 Concept: As Christ is the cornerstone so we as believers become the living stones of the Building he is the cornerstone of.

         1 Peter 2:5[Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. AMP

As Christ is the living stone, so the believers themselves are like living stones, that is, they share in the very nature of Christ himself. Living here cannot mean "life-giving" as in verse 4, but simply "alive," which is a further reference to the believers' new life in Christ and their participation in his suffering and exaltation. It may further imply that the believers should be alive in their relationships, particularly in their love and concern for one another.

It may be important to indicate with the verb come the person to whom one is to come, for example, "come to the Lord," but it may be important to indicate that persons are "to come to the Lord and be as living stones" or "...stones that are alive." Without the expression "and be like" a reader might get the impression that Christians were to come to the Lord like rolling stones.

As living stones, they are to let themselves be used in building the spiritual temple. Let yourselves be used in building represents one Greek passive participle, with God as the implied builder (compare SPCL "Let God use you in the construction of a spiritual temple"). The participle itself can either be indicative or imperative; some prefer the former (for example, JB "to be built up..."), but most other translations prefer the latter. The word translated temple can mean a house, or a household (as in Acts 10:2; 11:14; 1 Cor 1:16; etc.); in view of the metaphorical use of "stones," the former is to be preferred. Describing the church as the temple accents the collective nature of the community (compare Eph 2:21-22). This temple is spiritual, which may contrast it with the material temple in Jerusalem. However, in view of the fact that the Greek word used here (‎pneumatikos‎) is normally associated with the Spirit of God, the primary meaning here may be that the temple owes its existence from the Spirit of God, and not from the efforts of human hands (compare GECL "the temple of God... which is built by the Spirit of God"). As the temple of God's Spirit, the church as the new Israel is contrasted with that of the Old Israel: the latter being ethnically defined, whereas the former is now free from ethnic boundaries. Thespiritual temple therefore is the true temple of God, neither limited by earthly boundaries, nor defeated by non-spiritual forces.

There may be a number of advantages involved in transforming the passive expression let yourselves be used in building into an active one, for example, "let God use you in building." This material is from the UBS New Testament Handbook Series.

I would encourage you to think on these things.