Deal Gently
Deal gently. Even toward the wayward. Toward the ignorant even if they are willfully ignorant.
Read Time: 2 minutes
Jesus is our High Priest. A major part of the book of Hebrews is devoted to discussing his priesthood. It’s referred to elsewhere too, not always using the term “priest” but meaning the same thing. For example, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
It’s important—vital!—that we understand Jesus’s priestly role, hence the amount of space given to it in Hebrews, and the emphatic language used there. Without that priestly function, we would have no access to grace, no salvation.
Jesus is qualified to be the High Priest, our High Priest, because (#1) he is one of us, has faced every temptation. And (#2) he overcame them all. This allows us to come before the throne with confidence, knowing that we will find grace there.
The writer of Hebrews goes on. (Remember, the chapter divisions are arbitrary.) This is what struck me while I was reading in Hebrews this morning.
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. (5:1-2)
All priests, even the priests under the Law of Moses, had to have the qualification of being one of the people, personally familiar with the weaknesses of “the flesh” (a term used often for our sinful human nature). This is supposed to move him to deal gently.
Every priest, appointed from among men. What then of passages like these?
I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God… (Romans 15:15-16)
Do you see? Jesus is most certainly the only High Priest. But it’s very clear that he has appointed us to be priests as well! How can we possibly be qualified to have this role? These passages tell us. By grace, by appointment, by being freed from sin by Jesus’s blood. Not something we have any right to take on ourselves, but a role we are appointed to, that we must not shirk.
How then do we understand what the Hebrews writer says about every priest? They are expected to deal gently with the wayward and the ignorant. Because they themselves are beset by weakness. We are to deal gently, because we are beset by weakness ourselves.
Deal gently. Even toward the wayward. Toward the ignorant even if they are willfully ignorant. It’s what appointed priests are to do, to be “ministers of Christ Jesus in the priestly service of the gospel of God.” Looking to Jesus, the perfect High Priest, who shows us how.
Love, Paul