What is your understanding of priesthood? The other day I was reading “Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?” by James D.G. Dunn when I was stuck by this simple yet profound statement:
“Paul describes his own ministry in characteristically priestly terms (Rom. 15.16), but by doing so he probably was not thinking of himself as part of a distinct order of priesthood within the earliest Christian community. For it is his mission work, rather than his pastoral work, that he describes in these terms.” Thus, it is the church ministering within the world, rather than the individual ministering within the church, whom most authentically exercises priesthood as the apostle Paul speaks of it.
Curious Christian 