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you also, as livingstones, are being built up as a spiritualhouse for a holypriesthood, to offer up spiritualsacrificesacceptable to GodthroughJesusChrist.
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For this is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICESTONE, A PRECIOUSCORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
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Thispreciousvalue, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONEWHICH THE BUILDERSREJECTED, THISBECAME THE VERYCORNER stone,"
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and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE "; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were alsoappointed.
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But you are A CHOSENRACE, A royalPRIESTHOOD, A HOLYNATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelouslight;
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Keep your behaviorexcellentamong the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your gooddeeds, as they observe them, glorifyGod in the day of visitation.
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For whatcredit is there if, when you sin and are harshlytreated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patientlyendure it, this finds favor with God.
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and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He utterednothreats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judgesrighteously;