1 Peter 2:5

Peter saw the church as a living temple to which God was adding with the conversion of each new believer. Each Christian is one of the essential stones that enables the whole structure to fulfill its purpose (cf. Matthew 16:15-18). Later Peter would say his readers were also priests (1 Peter 2:9), but here the emphasis is on their being a building for priestly service, namely, a temple.

"This ’spiritual house’ includes believers in the five Roman provinces of 1 Peter 1:1 and shows clearly how Peter understood the metaphor of Christ in Matthew 16:18 to be not a local church, but the church general (the kingdom of Christ)." [Note: Robertson, 6:96.]

"I Peter never speaks of the Church as ekklesia, but uses metaphorical images of OT origin." [Note: Goppelt, p. 30.]

This verse helps us appreciate how much we need each other as Christians. God has a purpose for all of us to fulfill that we cannot fulfill individually. The Christian who is not working in relationship with other Christians as fellow stones, as well as with Jesus Christ as his or her foundation, cannot fulfill God’s complete purpose for him or her. While every Christian has an individual purpose, we also have a corporate purpose that we cannot fulfill unless we take our place in the community of Christians that is the church. Peter explained this purpose more fully below, but here he revealed that it involves worship and service (cf. Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15-16; Philippians 4:18).