By Elias Aslaksen A noteworthy exhortation! Most people are apt to think that if a person is zealous, he is certainly not lukewarm. But that is a mistake. The exact opposite is written here! The explanation is that everything is relative (comparatively)! When someone who is lukewarm in his zeal compares himself to someone who is more slack and lazier than he, he thinks of himself as a zealous fellow. But if he compares himself to someone who is boiling hot (for example, the apostle Paul), then his zeal becomes sheer lukewarmness! When we think seriously and deeply about all that the Father and the Son have done for us—all the glory to which they have invited us—and the fact that none of us knows how long our time of grace will be, we must come to the acknowledgment that the only thing that makes any sense at all is to be desperately zealous to love and serve Him who loved us first, and so incredibly and exceedingly much, as well as to be zealous to attain to all that He has called us to! Then everything else becomes as nothing, even less than nothing! Then Paul’s words apply, “But one thing I do . . . .”! And Jesus’ words, “One thing is needed . . .”!

Melchizedek was first of all king of righteousness and then also king of peace; and Jesus received this testimony: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the old covenant priest and king were two separate persons. They relied on each other. However, Jesus did not rely on anyone. He offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit as a spotless sacrifice to God. By taking away the first—the animal sacrifices—and by instituting the second, “to do Your will, O God,” He established the new covenant. He became priest through obedience and by offering Himself; He became king by virtue of doing God’s will. This was according to the order of Melchizedek. He relied on no one except His Father. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Pet. 2:9. From this we see that Peter wrote to those who had entered into the same priesthood of Melchizedek as Jesus, with Jesus as their High Priest. Heb. 5:8-10. If we are to follow Him and obey Him we also have to be offered up like He was in order to have the strength to do God’s will and to remain standing in the new covenant. Paul explains it with the following words: “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:10. The dying of Jesus is the offering up of “the will of the flesh and the mind” so that Jesus’ life can be manifested in our body. We are performing a priestly ministry “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,” and if we present our members “as instruments of righteousness to God,” we possess royal power. Rom. 8:13, 6:11-13. We are a royal priesthood, and we have the power to proclaim the virtues of Him who called us. This is the priesthood according to Melchizedek.Sigurd Bratlie