1 Peter 2:5

Plain English Version

Just like stones join together to make a house, you join up with Jesus to make a special house for God, so he will live with you. And Jesus will help you do good things and make God happy, just like the men that look after God’s ceremonies gave him good things to show him respect and make him happy.

Cross References

Romans 12:1

My Christian friends, God is so very good to us. So I really want you to use your bodies to live for him. A long time ago, God told his people to give him animals to show him respect. They did it like this. They used to kill the animals and burn them up. But now it is different. Now you have to use your bodies to live for him and do good things, it’s like you are giving your own bodies to God while you are still alive. If you do that, you will make God happy. That is the proper thing to do to show that you follow God.

Romans 15:16

and he picked me out to be a worker for Jesus Christ. My job is to tell the good news about Jesus to people that are not Jews. After I tell them that good news, God’s spirit works in them to make them good and right, and God is really happy with them. It is like I give them to God, like a really good gift.

1 Corinthians 3:16

You know that God’s spirit lives in you Christian people. You are like a special house that God lives in.

1 Corinthians 3:9

We are like 2 men that work for God in his garden, and you are like God’s garden. And I’ll use another picture story. This picture story shows that you are like God’s house that he is building for himself.

1 Corinthians 6:19

And you know, God gave you his spirit and he lives in you. Your body is the home of the Holy Spirit. You don’t belong to yourself any more, but you belong to God.

Galatians 6:10

You see, every time we can do something good for somebody, we have to do it. If that person believes in Jesus, they belong to the same family as us, so we really have to do good things for them.

Philippians 2:17

Yes, I’m happy about you. And even if they kill me, I will still be happy. I know that you believe in Jesus and you work for him, and when you do that, you are giving yourselves to God. And if they are going to kill me, I will be giving my body to God too. So we can all be happy about it together.

Philippians 4:18

But right now I have everything I need, and even more than I need. You are so good to me. You gave lots of money and things to Epafroditus to bring to me. But you didn’t only give them to me. You gave them to God. They are the right sort of gift, a really nice one, so he is very happy.

Colossians 3:17

Do everything the way our leader, Jesus, wants you to do it, and talk the way he wants you to talk. And always thank God, our father, for the good things that Jesus does for us.

1 Timothy 3:15

so that you will know the way we have to do things in the church. You know, we are God’s family, and his family is his church. God is always alive, and the people in his church always have to keep on teaching his true word. You know how a house is held up by the big posts that are set in concrete. Well, we people in God’s church, we are like those posts. We are holding up God’s true word, so we have to teach it properly.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are the people God picked out for himself. Together you work for him, like the men that looked after his ceremonies. You are his own family. God called you away from doing bad things, so you can do good things. It is like you used to live in the dark so that nobody could see you do bad things there, but now he called you away from that to live in his good light. So let’s tell everyone that God is really great and really good.

1 Peter 4:11

If you can tell stories to people, then tell them God’s story, and tell it clearly. If you can help other people, then let God make you strong so you can help them properly. Do everything properly so that when people see it, they might say that God is really great. If they know that you follow Jesus, they might thank God for sending Jesus to us. Jesus has really great power now, and he will have that power for ever. That’s true.

1 Peter 4:17

It is time now for God to start judging everybody. He will be good to some people, and he will give trouble to other people. He will judge his own people first. They might get some trouble now, but it will not last for ever. But later, he will judge the people that didn’t want to listen to his good story. He will be really hard on them, he will give them lots of trouble.