The Royal Priesthood
Do you ever feel like you are meant to be more and do more than you are currently? Well, you are! In 1 Peter 2:1–12, the apostle Peter tells us that we were chosen by God to be a Royal Priesthood, holy and set aside as His special possession. That is a high calling indeed! But one that God has equipped us for. He has placed His Spirit in us to help us follow Jesus’ example of surrender, sacrifice and love to God and to our fellow man. Jesus is our High Priest who intercedes for us to the Father. And as His followers, we too are to operate as priests who are heirs to the kingdom, called to intercede with good works and helping those who need us. I pray that we would daily live up to our calling as Royal Priests, called by God to serve His purpose of restoring us to a new humanity.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1-3)
In light of who God is and what His word means to Christian development, we should desire His word in the same way that newborns crave milk. We must put aside anything that defiles our hearts and deters our ability to fully receive God’s word. His word is pure and it promotes the spiritual growth of its readers and hearers. We have personally experienced (tasted) God’s grace. O taste and see that the Lord is good (gracious)!
The Living Stone and a Chosen People
As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10)
Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the Church. We are not actual physical stones, but the apostle Peter calls us living “stones”, because we make up the spiritual house of the Church, built upon the cornerstone of Jesus. But while Jesus is the cornerstone of the church and believers, to non believers He is a stumbling stone. Christian believers have been chosen by God’s grace to be a royal priesthood, holy and His special possession. This is similar to what God had desired for Israel when He chose them to be to a kingdom of priests and a holy nation representing Him to the nations around them (see Exodus 19:6).
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11-12)
The church and believers are called to be a credible witness to what God wants for the world, by the way we live. Jesus said that the world would know us by our love of one another (John 13:35). Peter here calls us to be the light of Christ in a world of darkness. He refers to us as foreigners and exiles, meaning that although we are in this world, we are not citizens of it and not to be corrupted by the evil it promotes. As royal priests, we are to show the world the love and light of Christ and do good works that glorify God.
God has chosen the Church universal (made up of the universal body of believers), to be a royal priesthood. We are royal because we are heirs with Christ of God’s kingdom. We are a priesthood because we are called to serve humanity, acting as an extension of Christ to each other and to those who need our help. As an extension of Christ, we are to demonstrate His love and His sacrifice of His life to both God and to others. When the apostle Peter writes that we are a chosen people, he is telling us that the Royal Priesthood is the purpose which God chose believers to fulfill. We are to be holy, because God is holy. And as God’s special possession, we are to live set apart from the way the world thinks and acts. So go on, look to the High Priest that is Jesus, following His guidance…. and be the Royal Priests that God has called you to be!
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
