3 Elements of Our Job as Clergymen

Priestly Job Description

The guts of the priestly job description is fellowship with the Lord, having fun with his hospitality and safety, dwelling in his home. Could we by no means assume that our obedience is the essence of life in Christ. Lavish meals, satisfaction, peace, and pleasure are the lot of God’s clergymen. It could possibly be no different manner once we are invited to stay on the junction of heaven and earth. But life is busy at this assembly place. There may be a lot to do. Our identification as clergymen is accompanied by a significant mission. Boredom is just not an choice.

For the early clergymen, there have been the weak, the orphaned, the widows, and the poor to look after and to encourage others to do the identical—to lend with an open hand, to be beneficiant as we’ve got been proven generosity (Deut. 15:1–18). There have been additionally wars and conflicts, and folks needed to be ready for battle:

Once you draw close to to the battle, the priest shall come ahead and communicate to the individuals and say to them, “Hear, O Israel, as we speak you’re drawing close to for battle in opposition to your enemies: let not your coronary heart faint. Don’t concern or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to struggle for you in opposition to your enemies to provide the victory.” (Deut. 20:2–4)

These early descriptions of the priestly mission had been all the time pointing towards one thing extra and somebody extra. The mission converges on Jesus, the true excessive priest, and from him our job description explodes with new that means. For instance, we nonetheless look after the poor, needy, and burdened, however with maturity comes an consciousness that we too are poor and needy (2 Cor. 12:1–10), and our look after others turns into infused with compassion (Heb. 5:1–3). Likewise, we proceed to be warriors who encourage different warriors, however now we see the actual enemy and his most deadly methods (Eph. 6:10–18). So we flip towards our main struggle. We stand agency in opposition to something in us that harbors satanic sympathies. We wage struggle in opposition to our personal self-serving needs (discover how they inevitably splinter relationships and mimic Devil’s murderous methods), and we assist one another in that struggle. These particulars are seen in three totally different elements of the clergymen’ job description. Every expresses our identification and goal, and every may be expressed with infinite selection.

1. Fill the earth with smart, discerning royal clergymen.

This filling is a worldwide element of the job description. It started, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). God had unfurled a canvas, and human beings had been the painters commissioned to develop it. It left a lot to creativity and creativeness.

As with the remainder of God’s animate creation, similar to crops and animals, individuals had been to populate the earth. We’re priestly offspring, and we hope for a a lot bigger household. The God who offers life offers us the potential to mimic him by giving life. We do that by having youngsters. However what units us other than the subhuman kingdom is that we are able to invite youngsters to comply with Jesus and be instructed into life at its fullest, and we are able to invite the world to be born into a brand new household. Jesus commissioned us in a manner that captured the true that means of this unique mandate:

Go due to this fact and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them within the identify of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, instructing them to watch all that I’ve commanded you. (Matt. 28:19–20)

The job of subduing the earth continues unabated from the unique fee. We’re stewards of earth. However the souls of humanity have develop into our main stewardship. Our purpose is for baptisms, which signifies God’s cleaning of us, however, much more, baptism implies that we determine with and belong to him. We have now been introduced again into his household, and on this household, we develop in Christ, educate about Christ, and discern what is true and good.

Samuel was clear about this side of the priestly job, even when the individuals he served rebelled in opposition to the Lord:

As for me, far be it from me that I ought to sin in opposition to the Lord by ceasing to hope for you, and I’ll instruct you within the good and the best manner (1 Sam. 12:23; cf. Deut. 33:10).

Clergymen name youngsters, neighbors, and the world to attract close to to Jesus.

2. Take care of the peace and purity of the believing neighborhood.

Such caring is a localized side of our priestly fee. The job of clergymen is to guard and preserve God’s home. When Adam and Eve failed within the unique testing grounds of Eden, God designated cherubim to guard his sanctuary. Within the subsequent part of redemptive historical past, cherubim gave method to clergymen. People had been being restored. The clergymen had been those who stored guard (Num. 18:3–4; Deut. 18:7). They got a considerable guide with exact course. There was to be little or no ad-libbing. As an alternative, they had been educated at discerning the methods of God. But even with this detailed course, clergymen failed and ran headlong into the idolatries that they had been commissioned to protect in opposition to.

Because it turned out, their failure was written into the guide. The blood of animals pointed to the necessity for a greater sacrifice, and the human coronary heart’s instinctive bent towards independence pointed towards the necessity for a brand new coronary heart, not only a rehabilitated one. Solely when Jesus turned the excessive priest and sacrifice and tabernacle did the royal priesthood develop into the church. But the church, too, has its struggles. We have now divisions, false lecturers, and sinfully favored preachers in addition to all the opposite sins recognized to humanity.

Our identification as clergymen is accompanied by a significant mission.

The apostle Paul protected the peace and purity of the church buildings with nice zeal:

Do you not know that you’re God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anybody destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you’re that temple. (1 Cor. 3:16–17)

On this passage, he makes use of the picture of the church as temple reasonably than the person as temple, and he guards the church by protesting the cult of character and favoritism within the church. When he wrote concerning the Lord’s Supper, he turned his consideration to distinctions between wealthy and poor the place the wealthy obtained most well-liked therapy. This might not be in God’s temple, he wrote. Tensions and division had been to be reconciled earlier than the priestly meal (1 Cor. 11:17–33). Then his pastoral letter shifted photographs from the church as God’s temple to the church as physique of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–30), which is much more intimate than tabernacle language.

For us, which means we’re vigilant about any hints of favoritism or strained relationships, first in our personal hearts and relationships, then in others.

• Can we pursue some individuals in our church however not others?
• Can we keep away from those that are totally different from us?
• Does anybody have one thing in opposition to us?
• Have we gossiped about others within the church?

These questions should not merely our makes an attempt to do the best factor. They’re options of our priestly humanity, and our attentiveness to them is our goal and calling.

3. Mirror the Lord (Ex. 34:33; Ps. 34:5).

A extra private method to envision this side of the priestly job description is to consider Moses, who mirrored God’s greatness and holiness. Moses needed above all else to witness the glory of God. Because the Lord got here shut, he revealed part of his glory to Moses. Moses, in flip, actually mirrored the brightness of God. As God is mild, so Moses mirrored that mild:

When Moses got here down from Mount Sinai, with the 2 tablets of the testimony in his hand as he got here down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the pores and skin of his face shone as a result of he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all of the individuals of Israel noticed Moses, and behold, the pores and skin of his face shone, and so they had been afraid to return close to him. (Ex. 34:29–30)

This story is unparalleled within the Previous Testomony. Solely right here can we witness somebody’s countenance change as a result of she or he was near the Lord. It’s, nonetheless, a priestly story. Moses represented the individuals and was invited to attract close to. When he drew close to, he took on a attribute of the one he beheld. Clothes can replicate the Lord; faces, too, can replicate him. The story might be picked up once more within the New Testomony, and will probably be even higher (2 Cor. 3:12–18).

This text is customized from Created to Draw Close to: Our Life as God’s Royal Clergymen by Edward T. Welch.

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