1. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
2. like newborn infants long for the unadulterated spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation,
3. if you have tasted that the Lord is kind,
4. to whom you are drawing near, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in the sight of God.
5. And you yourselves, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6. For it stands in scripture, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”