Once we are saved, our status is completely changed. After our salvation there are many aspects to our status. For example, we are children of God in His household and citizens in His kingdom (Eph. 2:19). We are also priests of God. Revelation 1:5-6 and 5:9-10 say that God saved us in order to make us not only His people but also His priests. The basis for our service after we are saved is our status as priests.
Priests are a group of “professionals,” just as teachers, lawyers, doctors, and engineers specialize in a profession. Teachers specialize in teaching, doctors in healing the sick, lawyers in handling legal affairs, and engineers in construction work. Priests specialize in serving God. Serving God is the profession of priests.
In today’s Catholicism and degraded Protestantism only a minority of people serves as priests. In Catholicism there is a group of people called priests, and in Protestantism there is a group of people called pastors. These people specialize in serving God, that is, in being priests, but the rest of the people are not priests. This condition is altogether unscriptural. God’s speaking in the New Testament clearly unveils that every believer is a priest of God. God desires that all those who belong to Him would serve Him.
The Old Testament shows that God’s original intention was for all the children of Israel to serve Him as priests. According to Exodus 19:6 God wanted them to be a kingdom of priests, a kingdom in which every Israelite would be a priest. However, because they worshipped the idol at the foot of Mount Sinai, they fell from God’s goal, and God separated a group of people, the tribe of Levi, to be priests. As a result, there were two groups of people among the children of Israel—the priests and the congregation, the rest of the people.
In the New Testament, however, God no longer wants such an abnormal situation to exist. God has no intention of having a group of people who are priests and another group of people who are a congregation. Rather, God desires all the believers to be priests. Hence, in the New Testament, the saints are the priests, and the priests are saints. Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church brought the degraded condition and system of Judaism into the church and divided the saints into two classes—the clergy and the laity. This was a great mistake and heresy. It is sad that during the Reformation, Martin Luther did not completely purge out this evil influence of Roman Catholicism. Hence, in today’s Protestantism there still remains the distinction between clergy and laity. Even to this day in the English-speaking world, the title of Rev., meaning “Reverend,” is added to the name of pastors. This is a confounding heresy. This does not come from the New Jerusalem but is a product of Babylon the Great. It is also a great offense to God. One who serves God in a proper way could never bear the title Reverend. Although there are some among us who serve full time, this refers only to a way of service. These ones are absolutely not clergy; hence, we should never add the title Reverend to their name or call them pastors. Every believer is a saint, a holy person, that is, one who serves God. We should never forget our status.
We are not saved to go to heaven but to be priests who serve God. When we were saved, we may not have been clear that God did not save us to go to heaven but to be priests to Him. Going to heaven may have been sufficient for us, but God wants us to be priests. Hence, not only do we have the status of priests (Rev. 1:6), but we are also a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (1 Pet. 2:5). All believers are priests.
The believers also have another status pertaining to service—they are slaves of God. We are not merely servants of God; we are slaves of God. Being a servant is general, but being a slave is specific. When we speak of a slave, we are referring to a person who has sold himself to be a bondservant (Exo. 21:5-6). Romans 6:22 and 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 say that we are slaves whom God bought with a great price. God is not only our God but also our Master. As priests we must serve God devotedly, and as slaves we must serve Him faithfully.
We have yet another status related to service—we are members of the Body of Christ. Romans 12:4-5 says that we are members one of another. Since we are members of the Body, we have certain functions. Just as every member in our body carries out its function, so also every member in the Body of Christ has its function. This function is to serve.
Our statuses after salvation—a priest, a slave, and a member of the Body of Christ—speak forth our need to serve God. These are our statuses for service.
Service is not only a matter of status but also a matter of life. In the universe every life bears a certain characteristic and does certain things. Plant life produces flowers and bears fruit. Animal life also has a particular behavior and living. This is an unalterable law. The life that we obtained through salvation is Christ Himself. This life also has its characteristics, one of which is holiness. For this reason, whenever we lead a holy life, the life within us feels at ease, but whenever we do not lead a holy life, this life feels uncomfortable. This is because the life within us has the characteristic of being holy. Another characteristic of the life of Christ is love. Whenever we love others, the life within us feels comfortable, but whenever we hate and envy others, this life feels uneasy and uncomfortable.
Another characteristic of the life of Christ is serving. The life of Christ is a serving life (Mark 10:45). If this serving life within us is not allowed to serve, we may feel like a bird that is locked in a cage and not allowed to fly. This is truly a suffering to the bird. A characteristic of the bird’s life is to fly. If a bird is released from a cage and allowed to fly freely, it will surely enjoy flying and have a wonderful time. Likewise, the more a Christian serves, the more he feels released inwardly, because a characteristic of the life of Christ is to serve.
Acts 3:13 and 26 and 4:27 and 30 show that Christ is the Servant of God. Philippians 2:7 says that when the Lord became a man, He took the form of a slave. We often say that our Lord is the Lord of all, but we forget that He is also a Servant. When He was on earth, He was a Servant. Among the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark speaks particularly of Him as a Servant. In 10:45 the Lord said clearly that He did not come to be served, but to serve. This shows a characteristic of His life. If we serve according to this characteristic, we will feel comfortable, free, released, and joyful within. On the contrary, if we do not allow this characteristic of serving to freely operate in us, we will definitely be unhappy.
Every believer has had this experience. If we do not serve the Lord, we have no inward joy. Serving the Lord is troublesome and may at times be burdensome, yet we inwardly feel joyful and comfortable because this is a matter of life. This can be compared to eating. Our need to eat adds many troubles to our human life. It would be wonderful if we did not need to eat. However, we must eat because it is a characteristic of life, a necessity of life. It is the same with serving the Lord. Although it is not simple or easy to serve the Lord, it is more of a suffering when we do not serve Him. This is because serving is a matter of life, a requirement of life, and a characteristic of life.