1 Peter 2:4-12 - A Living Stone, A Chosen People
4 As you come to him, the living stone who was rejected by people but was chosen and precious in God's sight, 5 you, too, as living stones, are building yourselves up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, so that you may offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus, the Messiah. 6 This is why it says in Scripture: "Look! I am laying a chosen, precious cornerstone in Zion. The one who believes in him will never be ashamed."
7 Therefore he is precious to you who believe, but to those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
8 a stone they stumble over and a rock they trip on." They keep on stumbling because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. 12 Continue to live such upright lives among the gentiles that, when they slander you as practicers of evil, they may see your good actions and glorify God when he visits them.