According to writings I have read and sermons I have heard, the chief cornerstone is a largely important part of a structure. It was almost like a blue-print stone that was the determining factor in the shape, size, dimensions and ratios of the structure which it supported. It was the most expensive and most valuable stone in the whole house, temple or other building. It was crafted specifically for these purposes.
Jesus is our Chief Cornerstone in the Church, by which we all measure ourselves in spiritual growth a placement. With the chief cornerstone, the walls and entire building were structured in relationship to this precious stone. It was the largest stone, baring the greatest burden of all the stones in the structure. There would be other stones that were cornerstones, but only one chief cornerstone, by which even the other cornerstones were oriented. If a piano shop were to have 500 pianos, all out of tune with each other, the fastest way to get them all in tune is not to tune one to another. If you were to do that, you would take days cross-checking each piano with the other 499. If each piano is tuned to one note, then all 500 are in tune with each other. This makes the process take only as long as it takes to tune 500 pianos rather than tuning each one individually and tweaking each as one as you go along. In the same way, when we tune to Him, we will be in unity.
There are two ways that a believer can evaluate their spiritual maturity: by the Chief Cornerstone or by other stones around them. The point of the chief cornerstone is to have a standard, the other cornerstones are to be lined up with the chief and then every other stone in the entire house is laid after that based on those alignments. Now you can compare yourself to other stones and hope that you are in the right position and baring the right burden, or you can be sure that you are aligned with the Chief Cornerstone and be sure of your election and calling. Paul was a cornerstone in his day. He knew that he was aligned with Jesus, so he told his churches to align to him. This was not arrogance, it was divine wisdom. His confidence was in Christ’s ability to lead, not his to follow.
Cross-tuning the 500 pianos is a lot like our comparison with each other. We check the size, shape and weight of everyone else’s cross, tuning our lives, our devotional times and our public righteousness to their notes. The problem is that we will always find someone that we are not in-tuned with and will overcompensate in tuning, thus throwing ourselves out of tune and not into unity. Unity comes from the tree of Life, the Cross, not from the tree of knowledge of good and evil whose fruit contains comparison.
If someone ran into the room right now and yelled at you, “GO!” What would your first question be? Even if you believed that they had good intentions, you would still need to know where to go. In the same way, when God spoke the Law to Moses, He said “Be holy.” The context suggests that He was showing them how to be holy, by fulfilling the Law, but that is not what He said. In the immediate context, God says “Be holy as I am holy.” The answer to the question is a Who, not a how. We are constantly being formed into the image of Christ and therefore we know where we are going, or rather who we are becoming. It has been said that want-tos belong to us, but ought-tos belong to others. My Great Aunt June used to say not to let others “should” you to death. Living for man strips us of our desires, diluting our life and enslaving us to shame for what we “should do”. God gives us the desires of our hearts, the Scripture does not say that He gives us what our people require of us. Our orientation in all things must be in relation to Him, His character and His plans, mapped out by the very Person that He is.
*Christ, we align ourselves to You, we tune our hearts to become like You alone. Amen*
