Living Stones

Excerpt from Justin Taylor post:  New Testament Metaphors for the Church

The following is not meant to be exhaustive—one could also profitably include field, olive tree, flock, vine—but the following are verses that deal with the main New Testament metaphors for the church: body, marriage, family, and buildings.

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The church is the temple of God, built with living stones, with Christ as the foundation and cornerstone, and the Holy Spirit indwelling it.


“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).

“The household of God [is] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).

“‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ . . . ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’” (1 Pet. 2:6-7 [Isa. 28:16; Ps. 118:22).

"You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5).

"Do you not know that you [plural] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19).