The Holiness of a Holy Priesthood

Our identity in Christ is not just our being living stones in the spiritual house He is building.  In Scripture it says, there’s a purpose:

1 Peter 2: 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

We are to be a holy priesthood.
It leaves no room for us to claim to be followers of Christ but not do what He says.
There is a holiness to the holy priesthood.

Frankly, I’m appalled at what I see among modern churches and their social media posts about how welcoming they are to everyone.  The problem is not in welcoming all people to a place of personal reformation in Christ. That’s a totally different process than welcoming a reformation of the church by bringing in people to change it …which is clearly what the comments are celebrating: ditch Jesus’ standards and celebrate “woke.”

Far from Jesus’ kind of church as they laud the diversity, Jesus’ kind of church ought to narrow the way from diverse/destructive to incredibly narrow holiness that God commands us to pursue as His followers. 1 Peter 1:15 “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'”

Beyond that, I’m angry (I’ll admit it) that many of the so-called pastors and preachers doing this are women.  Not all women have such bad theology (inviting what God hates to become the doctrine of the day).

Years ago, I wrote a post called Grave Trampling in which I described Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) and what our culture—and even Christians!–are doing to Christ Jesus.  We see what He says and go our own way!  It’s so far from the holy priesthood God wants us to be!

It’s not enough to say “Jesus Loves You” but it’s a wake-up call to deny self, pick up our cross daily, and follow Him.
The Easy Sell of You,
personalizing Jesus to fit your life and accept you as you are, as you find yourself in that “welcoming church” which never asks you to abandon sin
THIS WILL NEVER HONOR
the radical obedience that is the hallmark of true Christians.

During this so-called Pride Month when people are proud of their sin lives, as defined by God’s standards, flaunting a rainbow as an in-your-face to God, blaspheming His promise never to flood the earth again over such sin, please take a moment to remember that we’re not called to listen and go our own way, but to be built as living stones into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to our HOLY God by obeying Him and pursuing holiness.