Are not even we laics priests? It is written: "A kingdom also, and priests to His God and Father, hath He made us." It is the authority of the Church, and the honour which has acquired sanctity through the joint session of the Order, which has established the difference between the Order and the laity.
" Us, moreover, Jesus, the Father's Highest and Great Priest, clothing us from His own store -inasmuch as they "who are baptized in Christ have put on Christ"-has made "priests to God His Father," according to John.
For I have heard that you have received the ministry of the purpled ones. Oh, happy are you, even sleeping on the ground, to obtain your wishes which you have always desired! You have desired to be sent into prison for His name's sake, which now has come to pass; as it is written, "The Lord grant thee according to thine own heart; " and now made a priest of God over them, and the same their minister has acknowledged it. I ask, therefore my lord, and I entreat by our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will refer the case to the rest of your colleagues, your brethren, my lords, and ask from them, that whichever of you is first crowned, should remit such a great sin to those our sisters, Numeria and Candida. For this latter I have always called Etecusa -God is my witness,-because she gave gifts for herself that she might not sacrifice; but she appears only to have ascended to the Tria Fata, and thence to have descended. I know, therefore, that she has not sacrificed. Their cause having been lately heard, the chief rulers commanded them in the meantime to remain as they are, until a bishop should be appointed. But, as far as possible, by your holy prayers and petitions, in which we trust, since you are friends as well as witnesses of Christ, (we pray) that you would be indulgent in all these matters.
"And He made us a kingdom and priests unto God and His Father." That is to say, a Church of all believers; as also the Apostle Peter says: "A holy nation, a royal priesthood."
And made us a kingdom, etc. Because the King of kings and heavenly Priest, by offering himself for us, has united us to his body, none of the saints is spiritually devoid of the office of priesthood, since he is a member of the eternal Priest.
And hath made our kingdom priests to God and his Father. Because our Head is a king and priest, all the limbs are kings and priests, as the apostle Peter says in You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood. [1 Pet. 2:9] They are kings by governing themselves, and priests by offering themselves to God, according to this: I beseech you therefore by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. [Rom. 12:1] So, in saying to God and his Father, he indicates one person (although, according to the rule mentioned earlier, the Holy Spirit is there understood) in the same way as the apostle also says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, [2 Cor. 1:3] with the intention that one person should be understood by God and Father; hence it needs to be said, to him be glory forever and ever: to him, that is to him who has made us kings and priests, namely the Father and the Son, in which we understand the love of both, which is the Holy Spirit: for the love of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. [Rom. 5:5] Moreover, the Church is right to attribute glory for these things not to itself, but to the one it received them from, according to this: Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory. [Ps. 113:9]
QUESTION: What is meant by And hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and his Father? ANSWER: Seeing that the King of kings and heavenly Priest united us to his body by sacrificing himself for us, there is no one among the saints who does not spiritually have the office of a priest, since each of them is a member of the highest and eternal Priest. (1:8) THERE FOLLOWS: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God. ANSWER: The beginning means the one whom no one precedes; the end, the one whom no one succeeds. — He also repeats the same words again: who is, and who was, and who is to come. ANSWER: He had said the same about the Father, for God the Father both came and is to come in the Son.
The arrangement [σύνταξις] of the speech returns from the last to the first. He says to him, The glory and the power belong to the one who loved us; for how could he not have loved, "who gave himself as a ransom for the life of the world?" (1 Tim. 2:6)
"and has washed us from our sins in His blood." For He Himself bore our handwritten record that was against us in the decrees; and He fastened it to the wood of His cross (Col. 2:14), stretching out our sins to His own death and freeing us by His blood from our offenses, "having subjected Himself to death, even death on a cross, (Philip. 2:8) to heal our disobedience.
"and has made us a kingdom." And who says that in becoming "priests to His God and His prophets" there is benefit for us? For it was deemed fitting for men to obtain these things, securing for us the future kingdom and bestowing upon us an unfading glory even in the present time. For to "wash us from our sins in His own blood" is a greater and more marvelous gift, worthy of the divine grace. Moreover, that those who have offered nothing beforehand should become "priests of God and prophets" is a gift of such a kind.
So at the end of this section glory is befitting to Him who brought us to this honor and created so much grace. For we have nothing else to give in exchange, except only glory.
and priests. in that we continually offer to Him the rational sacrifice of thanksgiving and blessing, heeding the advice, ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of blessing’ instead of irrational sacrifices:
[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 1:6