1 Peter 2:7

‘For you therefore who believe is the preciousness (or ‘the honour'), but for such as disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner,”

This could indicate that to those who believe the preciousness of this cornerstone is accepted without question. It is wholly believed in by His people. This is in fact what differentiates them from others. They look to Him, and honour Him, and give Him glory. They are ‘Christ's men', ‘Christians' (1 Peter 4:14). They recognise that their whole lives are dependent on Him. But those who disbelieve, instead of honouring Him and acknowledging Him, reject Him out of hand. In their case He does not fit in with their conceptions. He is not precious. But to their chagrin they will see Him made the head of the corner.

Alternately it could mean that His people are to be seen as sharing His honour. They too receive honour through Him. But this does not fit so well with the comparison.

Peter seals his argument by citing Psalms 118:22, the Scripture quoted by Jesus in Matthew 21:42, and cited by himself in Acts 4:11. Though those who disbelieve reject Him as unworthy and useless, God will rebuke them by taking Him up and establishing Him as the head of the corner, the chief cornerstone. In mind here is the process by which every stone to be used in an important building had to be examined and passed as suitable, or was alternatively seen as ‘rejected after examination'. Jesus had been rejected by the inexperienced under-builders, but the Master Builder had seen in Him the chief Cornerstone.

At this point Peter may well have looked back and remembered how, when he himself had blurted out to Jesus that He was ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God', Jesus had replied that it was on ‘this rock', this statement of His Messiahship made by Peter, that He would build His new congregation (Matthew 16:18). Peter had good reason for thinking of the church as built on a Rock, the Rock of Jesus' Messiahship. For he was the first to have acknowledged the Rock. However, here it is not a rock, but a foundation stone.