God’s Word for You

Philippians 4:17-18 A royal priesthood

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, April 27, 2026

17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Here Paul once again explains himself so that the Philippians won’t get the wrong idea about why he is grateful for their gift. In doing so, he addresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

The most comprehensive explanation of the priesthood of all believers is in 1 Peter 2:4-10. “You are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood… a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare his praises.” This status and office of priests comes automatically to everyone who has faith in Christ, but not to anyone else. This is not unique or unusual. Before there was a Levitical priesthood in the closing years of Moses’ lifetime, all believers were priests before God, going back to Adam and Eve, who proclaimed the Gospel to their family and taught their children to worship God on the Sabbath day (Genesis 4:3-4). The offering of the believer was accepted; the offering of the unbeliever was not (Genesis 4:5). This priesthood was returned to all believers through Christ, as foreseen by the prophets: “In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought in my name” (Malachi 1:11).

So the New Testament priesthood of believers is not an offshoot, successor, or replacement of the old Levitical priesthood, but a continuation of the priesthood of believers which came to be when God first gave the Gospel and which will continue until Christ returns.

This priesthood gives all believers access to God. “Through him we have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18).

This priesthood gives us the privilege of prayer. “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne” (Revelation 8:3).

This priesthood is what we practice every time we come before God in repentance, seeking forgiveness. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Our priesthood offers no sacrifices for sins, however, because Christ offered himself as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 7:27).

Our priesthood does offer sacrifices, but only of praise and thanks. We offer these through our prayers and through our actions. “Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Hebrews 13:5). And we practice our priesthood when we give our offerings, which are “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18). And the Apostle writes: “Do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).

The priesthood of all believers is not identical to the called (pastoral) ministry. We all exercise the universal priesthood privately and in our homes (as Priscilla and Aquila did, Acts 18:26). Those who serve in the public ministry are called through the church by God, as we see in Acts 8:14, 11:22; and especially in Acts 13:1-3. And Paul reports that he was “called to be an apostle” several times (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1).

This has been a roundabout way of saying that the Philippians’ gift was an act of worship on the part of those good people. It was a gift not only to Paul, but a gift or offering to God. Professor Gerhard calls it an act of “pious dexterity” if we compare the rituals of the Levitical priesthood with the one and only true propitiatory sacrifice of Christ (that is, for the sins of all mankind) or the thank offerings and spiritual sacrifices that Christians do, such as the ministry of the Gospel (Romans 15:16), the conversion of the heathen (Philippians 2:17), prayers (Psalm 51:19), thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15), doing good things (Philippians 4:18), the mortification of the Old Adam (Romans 12:1), martyrdom (which is not to be sought but which might come as a cross, Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6), and in general, the entire spiritual worship of Christians (1 Peter 2:5).

These things delight God because they are done from faith, and therefore they are called “a fragrant offering,” just as farmers and gardeners wait for their crops or flowers to grow and bloom and fill the air with their sweet smell, for “he who plows, plows in hope” (1 Corinthians 9:10). Reassure one another, for the good of our souls, that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58), but it is our way of giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good. And his mercy endures forever (Psalm 118:1).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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