Do not act maliciously or be hypocrites. God is joining you together into a holy group in which his Spirit lives, to do things that are pleasing to him.

1 Peter 2:1-10

2 Therefore, do not act maliciously in any way or deceive others. Do not ◄be a hypocrite/try to make others think that you have qualities that you do not really have►, and do not ◄envy/be jealous of► others. Do not ever slander anyone. 2 Just like newborn babies long for their mothers’ pure milk [MET], you should long for God’s spiritual truth, so that by learning it you may become spiritually mature. You need to do this until the day when God will free you completely from all the evil in this world. 3 Also, you need to do this because you have experienced that the Lord acts in a good way toward you.

4 You have come to the Lord Jesus. He is like an important stone [MET] put in the foundation of a building, but he is alive, not lifeless like a stone. He was rejected by many people {Many people rejected him}, but God chose him and considers him to be very precious. 5 And like men build houses with stones [MET], God is causing you to be joined together into a group in which God’s Spirit lives, in order that you, because of what Jesus Christ did for us, might, like priests who offer sacrifices, do things that are pleasing to God. 6 What Isaiah wrote in the Scriptures shows us that this is true. He wrote these words that God said:

Note this well: I am placing in Jerusalem [MTY] one who is like [MET] an extremely valuable [DOU] ◄stone/cornerstone, the most important stone in the structure of a building►, and those who believe in him will never be disappointed.

7 Therefore, God will honor you who believe in Jesus. But those who refuse to believe in him are like the builders that this Scripture talks about:

The stone that the builders rejected has become ◄the cornerstone/the most important stone in the foundation of the building►.

8 And it is also written {Isaiah wrote} in the Scriptures:

He will be like a stone that causes people to stumble,

like a rock that people trip over.

Just as people are injured when they stumble over a rock,

people who disobey the message about Jesus are injured spiritually,

and that is what God determined would happen to them.

9 But you are people whom God has chosen to belong to him. You are a group that represents God like priests do, and you rule with God [MET] like kings. You are ◄a holy group of people/a group of people who are separate from evil►. You are people who belong to God. This is in order that you might proclaim the virtues of God. He has called you from your former ways, when you were ignorant of his truth, into the marvelous understanding that he gives us [MET]. That is, he has called you out of spiritual darkness into spiritual light. 10 What the prophet Hosea wrote is true of you

Formerly, you were not a people who had a relationship with God,

But now you are God’s people.

At one time God had not acted mercifully toward you,

But now he has acted mercifully toward you.