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The Old Testament anticipated this teaching when God said to his people at Sinai, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” 3 Isaiah says that a time will come when “You shall be called the priests of the Lord, they shall speak to you as the ministers of our God.” 4 The priesthood of all believers is based on the clear teaching of Scripture. There are both privileges and responsibilities that come with being a “priest.” Priesthood of All Believers in Scripture Along with this rejection of a separate order of priests, there is a positive call for us as believers to exercise certain priestly roles. However, it would be a mistake to focus on a purely negative meaning of this idea. Then we take some from among these born priest and call and elect them to these offices that they may discharge the duties of the office in the name of all of us. Rather he accepts this name to the baptized, or Christians, as their birthright and heredity name…none of us is born an apostle, preacher, teacher, pastor but there all of us are born solely priests. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit carefully avoids giving the same ‘sacerdos’ priest, to any of the apostles or to any other office. This implication is certainly present in the concept that Luther put forth: It implies the rejection of the Roman Catholic idea of priesthood. Perhaps one reason for its neglect is that the “priesthood of all believers” is seen as a negative, controversial subject. On the other hand, if the Church implies that the ministry is a higher calling than other professions, it will lose the impact that it has on individuals and society through “secular” vocations.Ĭlearly, the idea of the “priesthood of all believers” is vital for the health and effectiveness of the Church. If the Church teaches that working in business, communications, politics, or any other profession is just as impactful as working directly in the ministry, it allows Christians to connect their beliefs to their everyday actions, giving them purpose in their jobs and equipping to them to serve others and improve society though their daily work. This has enormous implications for how Christians live their daily lives. Both were tasks that God called his followers to do, each according to their gifts. So there was no hierarchy where the priesthood was a “vocation” and milking the cow was not. In fact, their plowing and milking was priestly work. When Luther referred to the priesthood of all believers, he was maintaining that the plowboy and the milkmaid could do priestly work. 1 Yet for whatever reason, the priesthood of all believers has been much less understood, taught, and expounded upon in writing. Martin Luther thought that “this word priest should become as common as the word Christian” because all Christians are priests. The first two, Sola Scriptura-which asserts the sole authority of Scripture-and Sola Fide-which teaches justification by faith alone-have been widely taught, but the notion of the “priesthood of all believers” has been by far the most neglected. This notion was one of the top three ideas of the Protestant Reformation. There is an important biblical idea that has great implications for our personal spirituality and public life in the Church and in the world: the idea that every believer is a priest, regardless of his or her full-time occupation.