1 Having therefore left all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all murmurings, 2 as newborn babes, desire the rational milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby in health; 3 if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is benevolent;
4 coming unto whom (is the living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious), 5 ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, well pleasing to God by Jesus, the Christ.
6 Therefore, also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion the chief corner stone, chosen, precious; and he that believes on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you, therefore, who believe he is precious; but unto those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to those who stumble at the word, not obeying in that for which they were ordained.
9 But ye are the chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an acquired people, that ye should show forth the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 10 Ye who in the time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, who in the time past had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from the carnal desires which war against the soul 12 and have your honest conversation among the Gentiles, so that, in that which they murmur about you as of evildoers, having witnessed your good works, they may glorify God in the day of visitation.