Montgomery - I Peter - 2

2:1  Therefore put away all malice, all deceit, insincerity, jealousy, and slander of every sort.

2:2  Like new-born babes long for the pure spiritual milk to make you grow up into salvation;

2:3  since you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

2:4  Come to him then, that living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, and precious.

2:5  And yourselves like living stones be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, through Christ Jesus.

2:6  For, as Scripture says. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him shall never be put to shame.

2:7  For you, then, that believe, is the preciousness; but for those who do not believe, A stone which the builders rejected, The same has become the head stone of the corner,

2:8  and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. They stumble over it because they are disobeying God’s word, and to this they were also appointed.

2:9  But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people, that you may show forth the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light -

2:10  you who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who were once without mercy, but now you have found mercy.

2:11  I beseech you, beloved, as pilgrims and exiles, to abstain from passions of the flesh that war upon your souls.

2:12  Let your manner of life before the Gentiles be honest; so that, although they are now slandering you as evil-doers, they may, by beholding your noble conduct, come to glorify God, in the day of visitation.

2:13  Submit yourselves, for the Lord’s sake, to every human authority; whether it be to the Emperor as supreme ruler,

2:14  or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the encouragement of well-doers.

2:15  For it is the will of God that by well-doing you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

2:16  Live like free men; and yet do not make your freedom a cloak for misconduct, but be the slaves of God.

2:17  Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Reverence God. Honor the Emperor.

2:18  Household slaves, submit yourselves to your masters in all reverence; not only to the kind and gentle, but also to the unreasonable.

2:19  For it is an acceptable thing to God, if from a sense of duty to him, a man endures a wrong, even suffering unjustly.

2:20  For what credit is it if, when you are struck for a fault, you take it patiently? But if when you are doing well and suffer for it, you always take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

2:21  For this is your calling; because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his footsteps;

2:22  He committed no sin, Neither was guile found in his mouth.

2:23  He was reviled, and reviled not back. When he suffered he never threatened but always committed his cause to the One who judges rightly.

2:24  He bore our sins in his own body upon the tree, in order that we might become dead to sins, and be alive unto righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

2:25  For you were straying like lost sheep, but you are now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.