"Priesthood of All Believers"

This was written by my good friend Troy Thackwray on his blog "His Goodness Revealed". Its Good!!

"Priesthood" of All Believers

For centuries people have pointed fingers at preachers and teachers of the word of God, labelling many as hypocrites and for being two-faced because their lifestyles don't actually line up to what they are preaching (does this sound like a familiar accusation to you?).

What is wrong with this picture? Does the fault particularly lie with those accusing the preachers?

Maybe to a degree it does, but when man starts preaching "Perfect Lifestyles" as something to attain and maintain, they set themselves up for unnecessary abuse in the ministry.

How, then, is it possible for ALL to be a "Royal Priesthood" and effective ministers of the word of God, if ALL have sinned and fall short of His Glory?

The answer is simple: When we find ourselves established in and preaching Christ's perfection and not our own, we will discover how easy it is to preach the word of God.

Although we certainly do encourage each other to walk in Christ, no one is "qualified" to preach perfection as the gospel - only Jesus has the credibility to change our behaviour,and praise God He does it graciously and peacefully.
However, EVERYONE is "qualified" to preach the goodness, perfection and love of God, and no one needs a perfect lifestyle for this!

I'm not denying that integrity and a godly lifestyle are influential attributes that show credibility and respectability, but when we find ourselves preaching these attributes, we effectively preach condemnation, and we also unknowingly activate a personal "time-bomb" that will go off as people begin to notice discrepancies between what we preach and how we live."