5 And you yourselves, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in scripture, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
7 Therefore the honor is for you who believe, but for those who refuse to believe, “The stone that the builders rejected, this one has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,” who stumble because they disobey the word to which also they were consigned.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,
10 who once were not a people, but now are the people of God, the ones who were not shown mercy, but now are shown mercy.
11 Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your soul,