Peter exhorts the believers to be like newborn babes, desiring God’s spiritual milk through which they would grow up into their salvation, seeing that they had tasted that the Lord is good. We have come to Christ, God’s chosen and precious Living Stone; we, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be God’s holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We have the honor of resting on that foundation stone which God has laid in Zion, and since we believe in him we will never be put to shame.
We who cling to Christ are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. We have been given the honor to proclaim the excellencies of God who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but now, we belong to God. Once we had not received mercy, now we are forgiven. In this world we are the royal priesthood of God, called to represent him and his kingdom wherever he has placed us.
We are living stones, selected and polished by God, being fitted together to serve as a dwelling place, a spiritual house for the Lord. We are a holy and royal priesthood offering up daily sacrifices of praise to God, which he can now accept through his Son, Jesus Christ.
I offer up to you today my praise, thanksgiving, and blessing. As a spiritual priest I bless you and exalt you, remembering the finished work of your Son, and looking forward to his coming soon. Maranatha, even so, come Lord Jesus! Amen.
Weekly Reflection on the Priesthood of all Believers
Priests are people of praise and prayer. They are foremost worshippers of God. Praise is perhaps the most explicit behavior connected to our priestly identity in the New Testament because it is specially linked to 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the Praises of him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
~ Scott Breslin, Embracing Our Priestly Nature at Work: A Theology and Practice for Ordinary Saints. Eugene OR: Resource Publications, 2017. p. 37.
Let God Arise! Seasonal Focus
Enter the Priesthood of All Believers, 1 Peter 2.4-10
Book Reading
Breslin, Embracing Our Priestly Nature at Work
