PSA Lesson 6

PSA Lesson 6

So how does a priest act? In watching the life of a priest what should you expect to see? It has always fascinated me, the way in which non-believers judge believers or the Lord’s priest. They seem to have some sort of an idea of how a priest ought to behave while they do not have any knowledge of the Bible and know nothing of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, nor of the power of the Holy Spirit, yet they are convinced that their way of thinking is correct. Since we are first considering the positive side of our spiritual attitude, we will first consider the positive things that we see from the Scriptures as to how we should then live. One of the first things that we know about Christians is that they are followers and learners of the Lord Jesus Christ, known as disciples. Our Lord taught, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27). There was a campaign, not too long ago, which was based upon WWJD or what would Jesus do? The idea being that as we go through life we should ask ourselves that question and then speculate on what the Lord would do. That is really not necessary, the question is really what did Jesus do? We need to study the Scriptures and see the Lord Jesus in them and what He did in the gospels and then do like-wise. In Ephesians chapter five we read of how we are to order our conduct, as we read that we are to “walk in love” (vs 2); “Walk as children of light” (vs 8) and then “walk circumspectly” (vs 15). We are to order our conduct within the sphere of these three things. The first is love, which is from the word agape which is self-sacrificial love. This is to put the needs of others over and above our own and in our egocentric society this stands as a stark contrast. It is as our Lord stated that “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). The second of the two great commandments is to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). Just think what kind of society we would have if this basic rule was followed. Then we are to order our conduct in the sphere of light, which is the holiness of the Lord who is the light of the world. This is seen in contrast to those who live and order their conduct in the sphere of darkness where their deeds are evil. The light shines on the darkness and will reprove those deeds by its very presence. This is why people complain that we are judgmental or that we think that we are better than them, because we live our lives in the light while they live in the darkness. Finally, we are to order our conduct circumspectly, this is to cut a straight line, it means that we are honest and we treat others justly. Our word is always good and others can depend on us to speak the truth and to do what we say that we are going to do. The interesting thing, is that there was a time in our society when this kind of behavior was the rule in our country but now has become the exception. We are living in a society that is more and more depraved and therefore, as priest, we stand out. In our next lesson, Lord willing, we will examine some specific things the Scriptures teach that a priest of the Lord will not do.