precious

Living Stones

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God is building a spiritual house with carefully chosen and dearly precious stones. These are living stones meticulously crafted and precisely placed, not just random chunks of rock strewn about the landscape.

We are perhaps more familiar with Paul’s description of the church as the body of Christ, of which we are all members. Yet Peter’s choice of metaphor is just as apt. A building with a gaping hole in the wall or roof will not fulfill its function to provide shelter. Bricks that crumble and beams that rot away throw doubt on the integrity and capability of the builder.

God’s house is not built with the dead stones that made up the temple. Rather his house is made up of God’s people and he dwells in them. Chief among these is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. Every living stone is placed in relation to Him. Each of us is uniquely shaped and fitted to fulfill our place in the larger structure.

1 Peter 2:4-5

Copyright 2018 David J. Cooley

More precious than gold

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“… so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire— may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7 ESV

Precious. Greatly valued, loved, important. How many things do we regard as precious? People – children, parents, friends, sweethearts – often head the list, and sometimes things can vie for our affection, too. But how often is our faith included here?

It is not so much how we rank what is precious to us, but the process by which value is gained. The word for trial or testing comes from the industry of metallurgy. It deals with refining a raw ore to remove impurities and reveal the genuine metal. This is often accomplished by the application of heat or fire. Even modern mining operations excavate truck loads of rock, pulverize it into pellets, leach the precious metal out with chemicals and melt it with high heat before pouring it into an ingot mold. One mine reports that 12 tons of rock may produce only one ounce of gold. One ounce. That’s precious. Precious enough to go to all that trouble and expense.

Yet Peter declares our faith is of more value than gold. And he links it with the testing of that faith to be sure it is pure and genuine. How much of a trial does it take for you to back away and abandon your faith? Peter knows that pressure. Remember the night he denied knowing Jesus not once, but three times? (Mark 14:66-72)

What value does a gold ring have if it isn’t truly gold? At that final day of judgment, there will be no payoff for any currency but genuine faith.

(c)2018 David J. Cooley