Then after the building, there is the priesthood. First Peter 2:5a says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood.” What is this spiritual house? It is a holy priesthood. The priesthood itself is the building, the house. This means that we become a serving body. A priest is a serving person, but this verse speaks not merely of a serving person but a serving company, a serving body, a serving group of people. It is when we are built together that we have the adequate service; that is, the adequate service, the adequate function, comes from the genuine building up. When we are built together, we are able to serve. In other words, the service is the building, and the priesthood is the house. If we are the built-up house, we are the serving body, the priesthood.
This priesthood has two aspects. Verse 5 speaks of the holy priesthood, while verse 9 speaks of the royal priesthood, the kingly priesthood. There are two orders of priests mentioned in the Bible, the order of Aaron and the order of Melchisedec. The order of Aaron is the holy priesthood, and the order of Melchisedec is the royal, kingly priesthood. Melchisedec was a kingly priest, a king as well as a priest (Heb. 7:1). To be holy is to be one who is separated unto God and goes to God with a burden for people. When Aaron went in to God, he bore the names of the twelve tribes on his shoulders and on his breast (Exo. 28:9-12, 15-21), that is, in power and in love. He was separated from the common people unto God, and he brought people to God. As such, he was the holy priest. The kingly priest is exemplified by Melchisedec. At the time Melchisedec met him, Abraham had been fighting the battle, and he needed bread and wine to refresh him. Melchisedec came out from God with bread and wine to meet Abraham’s need (Gen. 14:17-18). These are the two directions of the priests. The holy priest goes to God with man’s need. The kingly priest comes out of God and goes to man with the supply, the bread and wine, to meet his need. The real service of the church is always in these two aspects.
We may illustrate these two aspects of the priesthood by our gospel preaching. Before a week of preaching the gospel, we may spend a week for prayer. In this way we bear our burden to the Lord, praying day by day in the presence of the Lord. This is the service of the holy priesthood. Then after our prayer, we come out from the presence of the Lord with bread and wine to minister to others to meet their need. At this time we become the royal, kingly priesthood. This is the principle of the service. In order to have the real priestly service, the real priesthood, we need the building up as the basis, and we need to go to the Lord as holy priests to contact Him. Then from His presence we come out with something of Himself as the bread and the wine to minister to others to meet their need. This is the real service of the church.
If the built-up priesthood is holy and is also kingly, we have the proper service. This requires the adequate building up, the adequate contacting of the Lord, and the adequate ministering of bread and wine from the Lord to others. What we minister to others as the kingly priests is not merely teaching; it must be bread and wine, which are the riches of the Lord ministered to others through us. This is the proper principle of the service.
It seems that 1 Peter 2:5 through 9 is a short and simple portion of the Word, but all the principles of the service are here. These are the principles of rebirth, feeding, growth, transformation, building up, the holy priesthood, and the kingly priesthood. By all these we have the ministry of life and the proper, adequate function and service of the church.
In chapter four of 1 Peter there is one more principle related to service. Verse 10 says, “Each one, as he has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God.” The principle here is that all the gifts are for ministering grace to others. The gifts in 1 Peter 4 are the same kind of gifts that are in Romans 12. These gifts are the various functions. We all have received gifts—that is, we all have received functions—because we all are members. With every member there is a function as a gift given to that member. According to 1 Peter 4:10, we all have received a gift. Now we have to exercise the gift, using it to minister the varied grace of God to others.
Many times we extend hospitality to others. This extending of hospitality is a gift. However, what we are doing is not only the giving of hospitality. By extending hospitality we become stewards of the varied grace of God. By extending hospitality we minister grace, which is Christ as life, to our guests. However, it is possible to extend hospitality without ministering life. Too many times we give hospitality, but instead of ministering life we minister death. If morning and evening we merely pass on gossip to our guests, we are ministering death; this is a killing. Instead of supplying grace, we supply germs. Our function is not merely to do things, but by doing these things we minister Christ as grace to others. Those who are ushers in the meetings minister Christ to others by their ushering. Those who clean the meeting hall not only clean, but by their cleaning they minister Christ as life and grace. We all have received a gift so that we may be the good stewards of the varied grace of God.
I observed a sister in China who did nothing but wash clothes for our guests. Simply by that washing, this sister ministered life all the time. Anyone who contacted her through her washing of clothes had the sense that life was ministered to him. This is the principle of the genuine service. The unique principle concerning service in 1 Peter 4 is that all the functions are not merely to do a job but to minister Christ as life and grace to others.
In 1948 a wonderful revival took place among us in Shanghai. One day during this time, the church had a love feast. One serving sister among us was able to do everything very nicely, but at that time she did not minister life. People could sense her ability and intelligence, but that frustrated the life. There was another sister who was serving there, who while she was serving, dropped a bowl on the ground. She made a mistake, yet by her attitude and her spirit, we could sense the flow of life. In terms of business, the first sister was good, and the second sister was poor. In terms of life, however, the second sister had the flow of life. She broke a bowl, but life was flowing through her. We all have to learn to minister Christ as grace and life to others by exercising our gift, our function. As we function, as we are doing a certain job, we have to minister life to others.
Verse 11 continues, “If anyone speaks, as speaking oracles of God; if anyone ministers, as ministering out of the strength which God supplies; that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.” Again, the principle here is that we minister grace to others. We must pray about these matters and bring them to the Lord.