Priesthood and Intimacy

Being part of God's priesthood is an undeserved gift. This gift demands responsibility for action on our part. Also required are self-sacrifice/service and reciprocity.

As a final thought on this topic for a while, let me include intimacy as critical for priestly living. I'm referring to both intimacy with God and intimacy with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of primary importance is our own relationship with God. By definition, priests to God are close to God. Priests offer daily sacrifices of themselves to their Creator and Savior as part of communing with him. God desires and demands intimacy with his children.

Secondary, but still critical, are our relationships with other believers. We show our love for God through how we interact with other Christians. As we look in the bible, we see an expectation that we, as priests, will have close relationships with other priests. There is much more scriptural support for having close relationships with other believers than non-believers. Of course we ought to be friends with both groups, but Christians are to be the priority.

Intimacy requires time. This may be the toughest part. In our ultra-busy society, we often don't have much time to spend with Christian friends. I know I suffer from this with having to work about 60 hours per week. Regardless of our situation, we must do the best we can.

I'm sure there are some believers who are intimate with God who have very few if any Christian friends. This could occur overseas or here in the USA. The general pattern, however, for Christians seems to be that God wants us to live out our intimacy with him by being intimate with Christian brothers and sisters.

As we think about being priests, let's not ignore intimacy.

The Relationship Driven Church

It's fascinating to read how the New Testament authors describe church life. Almost everything they write has to do directly with interpersonal relationships. All of the "one another" exhortations are examples of this. If we studied the application passages of Paul's letters we'd see a comprehensive focus upon relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ.

What we don't see too much of is a focus on events. Although we read a few descriptions of church gatherings (for example Acts 20), these are not many. A significant passage such as Hebrews 10:24-25 focuses much more on the relationships involved than on the specifics of the meetings themselves.

In our culture the focus of the church seems to lean toward events. This can be true whether talking about more institutional churches or simpler ones. Although this is done with good intentions, it indicates priorities that are at least somewhat off target.

We'd all do well to ask whether or not we are more focused on relationships or events. I admit that there is almost always overlap between relationships with friends and events we are all involved in. However, they are not the same thing. Which of the two do we spend more time on? Do we put more work into events or relationships?

When we read the New Testament, we see Christians who had some great relationships and some that weren't so great. The writers dealt much with these issues. That was their concern. The church today (that's all of us Christ-followers) benefits when we take a look both at our relationships and at how much effort we place into those relationships.

When On My Deathbed

I'm thankful to say that I've never been anywhere near my own deathbed. Although I've crossed a Rubicon of sorts (age 40), I still feel pretty good.

That said, I recently pondered what I will care about on my deathbed. My guess is that it will be the same for all of us. Assuming we are right with God, we will care about two things. The first will be seeing Jesus soon. The second will be relationships we have here.

In light of that, it seems that church life should be the same. If there is an urgency to this life, then we ought to abandon distractions and secondary issues that come between us. If we won't care about it on our deathbeds, then let's not let it matter much now. As Christ's church, let's instead focus on our relationships with Christ and others.

This speaks directly to the issue of unity of the body. When on my deathbed, I'm not going to refuse to spend time with someone because he disagrees with me on baptism, the Lord's Supper, women's roles, tithing, etc., etc. Instead, my guess is that we will cherish relationships with everyone we care about. We'll want to spend time together.

We tend to go through life as if tomorrow is guaranteed. We allow things of lesser importance to come between us and other believers. Frankly, we are often distracted. We'd benefit from living as if we're on a deathbed. When we think in these terms, it helps us prioritize what matters.

Church life is about relationships. When we sense urgency, these are all we want. We grasp and hold onto unity when life is nearing the end. Instead of waiting for the deathbed, let's start living that way every day.