2:1 So then, put off all malice, treachery, pretense, envy, and trash talk.

2:2 As newborns, crave the rational, pure milk through which you may grow into salvation—

2:3 if you have sampled the Master’s kindness.

2:4 Come toward the Living Stone, which people have rejected but God has chosen to hold up as a trophy.

2:5 Likewise, as living stones you are being constructed into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing to God through Jesus the Anointed.

2:6 It is for this reason we read in the scriptures, “Attention! In Zion I am laying a select cornerstone, and whoever believes will in no way be shamed by it.”

2:7 So the honor is to you who believe, but to the unbelievers it is “a stone rejected by the builders that became the cornerstone,”

2:8 and a stumbling stone, a rocky trap set for those who oppose the Word.

2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an acquired people, so you should proclaim the brave virtues of the one who calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

2:10 Once you were no-name people but now you are people of God; once you were not pitied but now you are.

2:11 Loved ones, I implore you as aliens and exiles to abstain from carnal lusts that make war against the soul.

2:12 Exhibit good behavior among the non-Judeans, so that when they speak against you as evildoers they will honor God when he visits us, because they saw your good deeds.

2:13 Be supportive of every human institution by means of the Master, whether to the king as superior,

2:14 or to governors sent by him to bring justice against evildoers but honor those who do good.

2:15 Thus it is God’s will that the ones doing good should silence the ignorance of clueless people.

2:16 Do not use your freedom as a front for evil. Instead, as slaves of God,

2:17 value everyone; love the believers; fear God; respect civic authority.

2:18 Servants, support your employers in fear, and not only the nice ones but also the crooked ones.

2:19 You will be honored if you endure unjust suffering because you stand by your convictions about God.

2:20 After all, what credit is it if you suffer punishment because you failed? But if you do good and have to endure suffering, that earns you the favor of God.

2:21 For you were called into this, seeing that the Anointed also suffered for your sakes, leaving an example for you to follow in his footsteps.

2:22 He did not fail, nor was any treachery found in him.

2:23 Though he was mocked he did not mock in return; though he suffered, he did not threaten, leaving it to the one who judges rightly.

2:24 He carried our failures in his body upon the wood, so that we should live away from those and toward justice, and so that we may be healed by his wound.

2:25 For you were like straying sheep but now you have turned back toward the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.