Take Off My Ephod? NEVER!

While vacationing has its perks, I learned that you can never vacate from your office as a priest. Imagine if in scripture you read that Aaron or his sons or anyone from the priestly line took off their ephod and decided to become an Israelite from a different clan for a week... It doesn't happen. The ordination of the priests in Leviticus 8-10 shows the process by which the priests are set apart for service to the LORD. The process is irrevocable.

The same is true of you when you begin to see yourself as a part of the royal priesthood. When Jesus calls you into His kingdom you become a priest too. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:11 emphasis added). Therefore you take on the role of priest as well and you never step away from your office of priesthood. This is so important because in our society we isolate areas of life. We have our school time, our work time, our family time, our church time, etc... The problem is a priest never becomes an ordinary Israelite... He is ordained for life. So, it is with the high office of being a Christian. We need to learn that being a Christian extends well beyond our hour and a half on a Sunday.


Paul puts it to us like this in Romans, "as it is written; 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you'" (Romans 2:24). When we who know the law and teach others, when we who call ourselves Christians 'take a break' from being Christians we essentially bring shame on Christ. I hear too often of my students living double lives, claiming Christ on Sundays but then walking in darkness throughout the rest of the week. That is not God's design for His followers. Our lives should be a living sermon. Something that people look at and see Christ in us. When we isolate or segregate our time to Christianity only happening on Sundays we become like the hypocrites that Jesus stood opposed to.


Let us make an effort to bring our lives into sharp focus. We have one mission in life, to demonstrate Christ to a broken world. Christianity is not simply a label we slap on top of our lives. It is an all out change. It is an identity. It is the act of becoming a priest so that you live in such a way that 'people may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us' (1 Peter 2:12).