Royal priests

Peter tells you what your royalty is for. "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." He is quoting what God said to Israel at Sinai: "you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). What was promised to a nation at the foot of a mountain is now said of you. John says it too: he has "made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father" (Revelation 1:6). Kings and priests, in one person. That is a strange combination in the Old Testament, where kings came from Judah and priests from Levi. In Jesus the two lines meet, and in him they meet in you.

So what does a priest do? Three things, and none of them are about status. A priest offers. The temple is gone and the sacrifices are different, but there is still an altar: "let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God... Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God" (Hebrews 13:15-16). Your worship, your generosity and your body presented to God are your priestly work. A priest stands between. He brings people to God and God to people; that is why Peter says you are royal priests "in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." And a priest has to be clean to serve. That is chapter three, and it is why the holiness you learned there is not a rulebook. It is the uniform of the job.

Which is why the New Testament keeps using one phrase for the way a Christian lives: walk worthy. "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." "Walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory" (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Worthy does not mean earning. You cannot earn a calling you already have. It means fitting. A prince who behaves like a thief is still a prince, but he is a disgrace to the house. You carry your Father's name into the office, the classroom, the group chat. Walk like it.

And you can, because you have been given what it takes. "His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness", and through his promises you "become participants of the divine nature". Not admirers of it. Participants. The character of God is being formed in you, because his Spirit is in you. So when it costs, remember the second half of the joint-heir verse: "if we endure, we will also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12). The throne is on the far side of the road. Keep walking.