Even those who cannot at present be acting as priests must make sure to keep eating as priests.
Beginning in Leviticus 21:16, the Lord discusses with Moses the physical disqualifications of functioning priests. Let’s remember that what Israel had in a physical way we now have in a spiritual way. Yes, we do have a priesthood (1 Pet 2:5, 9), a tabernacle (Heb 9:11), sacrifices (Rom 12:1; Eph 5:2; Heb 13:16), holy garments (Eph 4:22-24), and so on, but all in a higher and spiritual way. Therefore any applications made from these verses to us today must make the transition from the natural to the spiritual. We read: “No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect” (Lev 21:21-23). Notice the important distinction made here. A defective priest “may eat the bread of his God” but he could not “come near to offer the bread of his God.” If something has come into believers’ lives that should not be there—which may have spiritually blinded or incapacitated them—they may be disqualified from serving up the bread of God for others, but they can still feed on it themselves, daily taking in “the bread of his God.” In fact, it is essential that those who have been spiritually damaged realize that they are still priests and now, more than ever, need to be feeding on God’s Word. “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,…desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.…you also…are being built up…a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:1-5).