By
Shelby G. Floyd
Credit: Google Images
No one wishes to be boorish in manners, rude in speech or ugly in spirit; but the most courteous and amiable of persons will find it necessary in their pursuit of truth and righteousness to be offensive to some people. Our Lord Jesus Christ was no exception. Approximately 700 years before his advent, the prophet Isaiah stated that Jesus Christ would be a rock of offense to both of the houses of Israel (Isaiah 8:14).
Many years later, in a figure of speech, Christ was compared to the chief cornerstone of a building. That building is the church. Just as the builders rejected the chief cornerstone, so Christ was rejected by the Jews, but later became the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling to those who believed him not:
“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: where unto also they were appointed” (1 Peter 2:7-8).