It means we don’t have a high priest who needs to lead us or intercede for us with God. (Hebrews 10:11-25, 1 Peter 2:5-9) We have access to God — unmediated, no help required, open access to God.
We can pray and talk directly to God anywhere, anytime, and in any number of ways. God wants to hear fro m us and we have access to Him. It’s like a dream come true — connection with the Creator of the universe, the One who understands ALL the stuff that we don’t. And there’s a lot of stuff. We can talk to God and listen to God, us, on our own, no help required, no special phone plan, no technology required. That’s it, just us and God conversing.
unmediated, no help required, open access to God
That’s where the idea is taken most often. But there’s more!
It also means we have responsibilities and opportunities too.
We don’t have to wait for a religious leader who has been somehow organizationally appointed to speak to God or to act on what he/she hears. We get to speak to God, to listen to God, to read the Bible and then the responsibility is to do what it says
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.
Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”
James 1:22
And Jesus said, “But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish,
like a person who builds a house on sand.”
Matthew 7:26
It means we all minister, we all serve and obey.
We pray.
We show mercy.
We worship God individually and as part of the larger church community.
We dig into the Scriptures.
We hear the Holy Spirit lead us to truth and act upon what we hear.
We love God with 100% of our being.
And we love our neighbours as ourselves.
We don’t need a Pastor to preach the word to us to get fed. We are self-feeders.
So, we don’t need Pastors?
No, we do have pastors and other leaders too. They are given as gifts and leaders according to the Bible. And as believers we enjoy teaching from a pastor or teacher absolutely. Part of being a priesthood of believers is being humble and teachable. We listen to teachers, pastors, apostles and anyone who has a word from God.
But, as self-feeders, we dig into the Bible and seek the Holy Spirit to help us learn what God wants us to learn from it. Then when we gather in our church community we each contribute things that build up the body as we grow and become more like Jesus.
We don’t turn to church staff to evangelize our friends. We have our own stories to tell of how Jesus has affected our lives. We need to share those stories with our friends and give them the opportunity to respond. We need to show them how we’ve become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) and they can too.
We don’t rely on church staff or volunteers to teach our children. We are the primary disciplers of our children. Which means we also have to be caring for our own souls so we can hear from God for them.
We are the body of Christ, the priesthood of all believers and we spend time directly with God. We minister in His name as Christians. We have gifts and gather together to use them to benefit the world around us.
The priesthood of all believers is listening Lord, tell us what to do.