1 Peter 2:4

To whom coming, as unto a living stone The whole imagery changes, like a dissolving view, and in the place of the growth of babes nourished with spiritual milk, we have that of a building in which each disciple of Christ is as a "living stone" spontaneously taking its right place in the building that rests on Christ as the chief corner-stone. The new imagery is connected in St Peter's mind with its use in Psalms 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16, but it is not without significance to note that we have the same sequence of the two metaphors in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11. It may be noted also that the Greek is bolder in its use of the image than the English, and has no particle of comparison, to whom coming, even to a living stone. The term "living" is used in its fullest sense, presenting the paradox of connecting the noun with the adjective which seems most remote from it. The lower sense of the word in which Latin writers applied the term saxum vivumto rocks in their natural form as distinct from those that had been hewn and shaped, is hardly admissible here.

disallowed indeed of men The verb is the same as the "rejected" of Matthew 21:42. We cannot forget that the thoughts on which St Peter now enters had their starting-point in the citation of the Psalm by our Lord on that occasion. In the substitution of the wide term "men" for the "builders" of the Psalm, we may trace the feeling that it was not the rulers of the Jews only, nor even the Jews only as a nation, but mankind at large, by whom the "head of the corner" had been rejected. Here again we see in the Epistle the reproduction of the Apostle's earlier teaching (Acts 4:11).

but chosen of God, and precious More accurately, but with God (i.e. in God's sight) chosen, precious (or, held in honour). The two words emphasize the contrast between man's rejection and God's acceptance. Both are taken from the LXX. of Isaiah 28:16.