1 Peter 2:4, ff.

The builders rejected the living stone because it was divine and therefore did not fit into their human building method, which was concerned only with outward things. It did not fit into their understanding which comprehended only the things that are human, whereas this stone had come from heaven. Moreover, whatever man does not understand, he rejects in his arrogance as foolishness. The world in its wisdom will not acknowledge God and His wisdom. They do not understand it, and therefore they reject God’s wisdom in their wisdom as foolishness. However, God wants to show mankind how empty their thoughts are; therefore He has decided to save mankind through (foolishness) what they consider to be foolishness. But if mankind in their wisdom could not comprehend God’s wisdom, one would expect that they in their wisdom could comprehend God’s foolishness. 1 Cor. 1:25. But also God’s foolishness is wiser than man. Seeing that they despise God’s wisdom, how much more must they then despise God’s foolishness. And seeing that they do not comprehend God’s foolishness how much less do they understand God’s wisdom! Man has to come down so far that he must declare that he neither understands God’s wisdom nor His foolishness. The thoughts of the wise are brought to nothing. They are unable to fit the stone of foolishness into their thought process. By using divine weapons, Paul casts down man’s arguments in order to awaken faith so that there may be room for the stone. By man’s thoughts being cast down, the offense of the stone (the cross) is taken away, for the stone itself is not offended, but man’s understanding is, because man cannot comprehend it with his understanding. Moreover, when this is being torn down, the offense of the rock is removed for man, and then its preciousness becomes evident by faith. People will believe in this precious stone even though they do not understand it with their natural understanding. We must go (from our understanding) away from our thoughts and lay hold of the stone by faith. It will only become an offense through our thoughts, but by faith it becomes precious. When every high thought is cast down, the soul chooses the stone that is precious before God; then it also becomes precious to him and he to God. By faith the understanding of the heart comes to the forefront; it is a new, divine understanding, so that then we can understand the glory of the stone. Come to the living stone believing; man has rejected it with his understanding. His understanding could not have a living connection with the stone; it was completely closed. It felt hard and not tender to the human nature; hard to his understanding; hard to the flesh; hard to the world. There were no lines of contact, no threads that he could gather in his hand and by which he could infer the content of the stone. This aroused the offense. We, too, must be as hard as the living stone.

Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that the glory of the stone shall not shine for them, so that its preciousness should not be revealed. 2 Cor. 4:4. However, in the Spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13) God lets the glory of the stone shine into our hearts, so that the knowledge—the knowledge of the heart in the spirit concerning the stone’s glory that mirrors God’s image—shall radiate from us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels; and as the outward is perishing, so the glory of the stone shines more and more brightly. Gideon had torches inside the earthen vessels, and only after the earthen vessels were totally broken in pieces were the torches visible. When we suffer death in the flesh but are made alive in the spirit, God’s light and knowledge will radiate from us.

A stone shall be a house unto itself, and the glory of the Lord shall fill the house, and the knowledge of the glory of the house is to proceed from us. The stones are formed outside the city by the cross of Calvary so that the noise should not reach the city. The stones that are being formed by the cross, by foolishness, become stones of offense and foolishness, and as such they are rejected by men. Do not marvel if the world hates you. These living stones do not fit into human ways of thinking; however, they do fit into God’s building, growing up to be a holy temple of the Lord. These small stones possess the radiance of the chief cornerstone. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. The world does not tolerate the radiance of the stone because it reveals their own, bad building stones (materials), and they will not believe because they receive honor from each other for their own understanding. If they would believe, all their good reasoning would have to fold; but with that their honor would also be destroyed, and they would have to build by faith with the rock of offense, and instead of honor, they would receive reproach from people. The world cannot bear the light from the stone because it is judged by its light. The fact that a light and judgment should come over them from the rock of offense—from foolishness, from that which is nothing—from that which is considered rubbish in the world, makes them furious. However, to their own shame they will always be judged by the foolishness of offense. But the honor belongs to us who believe. People consider us to be nothing, even smitten by God. They feel better for it, but they will still be judged by the lowly.