Saturday Night Devotions

I Peter 2:5

    You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

     Remarkably, we are now given the same title given to Jesus in verse 4.  We are to be “living stones” just like our Savior – strong and solid, able to bear the weight of the needs of others, but living and active, not sedentary or unfeeling, looking to move about in service to God and others. 

     We are not compared with pebbles in a stream, unnoticed and anonymous, but we are rocks that are being “built up a spiritual house.”  Just as many great and small stones are used in building a house, so we are together built into the walls of God’s spiritual house, the church.  Whether small and nice-looking, or massive and weight-bearing we all come together to form the body of believers known as the church.  The purpose of our bond together as a church is here mentioned – we are to “offer up spiritual sacrifices.”  We cannot talk about worship and coming to Jesus as in verse 4 for very long before sacrifices must be brought up.  We are invited to “draw near to God (James 4:8)” and “come to Jesus (Matthew 11:28 and verse 4 above)” – but we cannot do so without sacrifice.  We cannot be right with God without Jesus’ sacrifice for us, nor can we be right with God without our sacrifice for Him.  Here we see that our sacrifices are acceptable to God – not because of our merit, but because of the merits of Jesus Christ.  It must be our ultimate aim to make ourselves acceptable to God.  A thinking man can come to no other conclusion.  And the key to becoming acceptable to God is written briefly here:  make spiritual sacrifices which God finds pleasing.  What are spiritual sacrifices?  Scripture answers for us.  Hebrews 13:15 says, “We bring the sacrifices of praise.”  Psalm 51:14 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.”  Proverbs 15:8 says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”  Proverbs 21:3 says, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to The Lord than sacrifice.”  So then we see that praise, contrition, brokenness over sin, prayer, and righteousness are the spiritual sacrifices that please God the Father.  Since making ourselves acceptable to God must be the highest aim of all thinking individuals, let us make all effort to make these spiritual sacrifices which, through Jesus, are pleasing in God’s sight.