Since I was looking into Melchizedek this past week and thinking about the Old Testament priesthood in general, I ended up looking at Peter's description of believers all together serving as a "royal priesthood".
I suppose there are many different angles to that analogy. Among them:
- "Offering spiritual sacrifices to God" (1 Peter 2:5)
- Practicing holiness - being set apart for God's purpose (2:9)
- Being in God's "employment"
- Proclaiming God's goodness to the world (2:9)
Peter goes on to urge his readers to submit themselves to every earthly authority (2:13) and to be willing to suffer for doing good (2:19).
Verse 15 is worth a bit of meditation: "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men."
How do we silence those who are opposed to God's ways?
By shouting them down? No.
By shaming them? No.
By getting righteously angry with them? No.
Simply by continuing in doing good.
Fundamentally, I see this fact in our call to be a royal priesthood:
On our end, we are not called to be in an adversarial relationship with the world.
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