Living Stones & Spiritual Sacrifices
APPLICATION ARTICLE | William Stewart | Odessa, Ontario, Canada
Construction analogies are common in the New Testament. From an early age, many of us sang about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matthew 7:24-27). Jesus stressed the need for us to count the cost of following Him by speaking of a man who began to build a tower but was unable to finish (Luke 14:28-30). In 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul called the church “God’s building,” himself a “wise master builder” and urged us to build wisely upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 elaborates, calling it the “…foundation of the apostles and prophets…,” and uses words like “building,” “a holy temple,” and “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” to speak of the church. These building illustrations abound.
We find similar language used in 1 Peter 2. Jesus is “a living stone” (v 4), “a chief cornerstone” (v 6), “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (v 8). If we are in Christ, we too are “living stones … being built up a spiritual house” (v 5). We are living stones because of Him – apart from Christ, we are dead in sin and have no part in “God’s building,” the church.
It is vital we grasp the importance of being “built up” or as Paul worded it in Ephesians 2, being “joined together” (v 21) or “built together” (v 22). We are part of a structure; one piece of a whole. When the bricklayer builds a wall, he sets one brick upon another, gelling them together with mortar. As the blocks are added, the wall takes form and becomes a strong cohesive unit. For a brick to be part of the wall, it must be used in the wall. The brick left lying to the side by itself, though it is a brick, has not been “joined together,” “built together” or “built up” with the others. The brick fulfills its true purpose, not by laying idly on the ground somewhere, but by being included in the wall.
Living stones (Christians) cannot fulfill their God-given role by themselves. When we come to Christ through obedience to the gospel, we are added to the universal body of believers, but throughout the New Testament we see emphasis placed on believers gathering together, not haphazardly, but as local churches following the divine blueprint. Living stones cannot be “built up a spiritual house” apart from membership in and fellowship with a local congregation. The bricks need to be in the wall to be part of the wall.
By implication, attendance and participation are requirements. The apostle Paul used the physical body as an analogy for the church when he wrote to the Christians at Corinth. He stated, “…God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” and “…those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary…” (1 Corinthians 12:18, 22). Local churches need their members to be present and active; every member, not just those who fill leadership roles. The pinkie on your left hand has a comparatively minor role to play in the function of your body from day to day, but are you not glad that it’s there? And if one day it were not there, I guarantee you would notice and miss it. Every member is important in the body, no matter how big or how small.
If we randomly remove several bricks from a wall, even if they are “weaker” bricks, the structural integrity of the wall is compromised. The absence of some bricks affects the strength of the wall and puts more strain on the bricks that remain. Every brick adds to the strength of the wall and is needed. The same is true of the local church. Every Christian is a living stone and intended by the Lord to be part of the building project – the spiritual house wherein God is praised and glorified. When Christians are willfully absent from the assembly, it weakens the church. Friend, if we are going to be the living stones God wants us to be, if we are to be “built up a spiritual house,” then we need to be present and active in a local church.
Not only does Peter say we are “being built up a spiritual house,” but he also refers to us as “a holy priesthood.” Two distinct but related Old Testament images are brought together as a single image in the New Testament. The Jews had a temple, a physical structure, which was built as a place of worship and service. And they had a tribe of priests, the Levites, who were commissioned to minister at the temple. Under the New Covenant, the temple and the priesthood are one. The church is “a spiritual house” and “a holy priesthood.” We are both the place and the people where “spiritual sacrifices” are offered up to God through Jesus Christ. What are these “spiritual sacrifices”?
Writing to the saints in Rome, Paul said, “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). According to the command of God, worshipers under the Old Testament offered animal sacrifices to the Lord. They were alive when they brought them, but the process of offering them resulted in dead sacrifices. Under the New Covenant, you and I started out dead. Through Jesus Christ, we have been brought before God and made alive (Ephesians 2:1-5). The Lord now expects us to be a living sacrifice– to devote our lives to serving Him. Romans 12:2 warns against conformity to the ways of the world, and commands us to be transformed, to be changed in our thinking, to have a renewed mind in accordance with the word of God. When our minds are directed by God’s will and when we choose to live by faith (Galatians 2:20), we are offering a spiritual sacrifice to the Lord.
In Hebrews 13:15, we read, “…by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” When we gather for worship, praising God in song, exalting Him and His way in our worship, prostrating before Him in prayer, reading and discussing His word – we are offering spiritual sacrifices. A result of our diligent study of God’s word should be good works, which are counted as sacrifices to God (Hebrews 13:16). The New Testament has a great focus on the need for Christians to do good, to minister to others, to meet needs. Jesus cautioned us not to do good deeds to be seen by men, but rather to be seen by God, who will reward us for our spiritual sacrifices offered to Him (Matthew 6:1-4).
In Philippians 4, Paul acknowledged the generous spirit of the brethren in Philippi, who “…sent aid once and again…” for his necessities (Philippians 4:16). They supported Paul in the work of preaching the gospel. He confirmed that he had “…received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18). In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul reasoned with the unreasonable saints at Corinth about the importance of financially supporting those who preach the gospel. I say unreasonable, for they were unwilling to support him while he worked among them (2 Corinthians 11:8). In the first letter, he used a variety of illustrations to establish the point that “…those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). No one goes to war at his own expense; those who plant a vineyard eat of its fruit; one who tends a flock drinks the milk of the flock; when an ox is treading, you don’t muzzle it; the Levitical priests who ministered ate of the things at the temple (v 7-13). The support of those who preach the gospel, whether local or distant, is “an acceptable sacrifice,” a spiritual sacrifice, well pleasing to God.
Are you a Christian? If so, you are called to be a living stone. You are called to be “built up a spiritual house” with other living stones. You are called to serve as “a holy priesthood.” You are called to “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Does your service to the Lord match the description of what He has called you to? Are you a living stone exalting God and building up His people or a lifeless broken rock unprepared for judgment?
19.01.01 | GROW magazine
