Not Our Own

Today I continued reading through 1 Corinthians, and I found myself needing to stop every few verses to digest what Paul is saying.  There is so much theology here, and so much to ponder.  This morning I read these verses, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body." (1 Cor 6:19-20)


It dawned on me that despite our constant desire for independence, we are never our own.  We have no claim to our own lives at any point in time.  Apart from Christ we are slaves to sin, and therefore, slaves to the god of this world (aka Satan.)  In this state we are not our own because our minds are controlled by our sinful nature and cannot please God (see Romans 8).  While we might not see ourselves as slaves, when we submit to anyone or anything but God, we are indeed held captive by it.  Captivity can be so subtle, for example, before I became a christian I was held captive by the need to please other people.  While wanting to make others happy isn't in itself a bad thing, when that became foremost in my mind, it held me captive.  My mind dwelled on this day and night and gave me no peace.  Others might be held captive by sin in other ways: the desire for positions of power, the accumulation of more stuff in their lives, or even allowing the actions of other to rule their emotions.  If our lives are not fully submitted to Christ, Satan will take even the good things in life and twist them into chains.

Verse 20 goes on to say, "you were bought at a price."  That price was the blood of Christ who died to set us free from Satan's grasp.  Christians are to be submitted to the Lord and declare their lives fully in his hands.  I've written on the idea of submission in previous posts and how the world has turned it into an ugly word.  In actuality, submission shows us, a beautiful picture of the Trinity.  It is when we recognize that we are not our own, rather, that we are His that we finally know freedom.

This verses ends, "Therefore honor God with your body."  This section of Paul's letter is warning the Corinthians against sexual immorality and allowing sin to creep into the church.  God gives us freedom in our salvation, but this freedom doesn't mean we can do whatever we want.  Earlier in his letter Paul says, "Everything is permissible for me--but not everything is beneficial.  Everything is permissible for me --but I will not be mastered by anything."  (1 Cor 6:12)  What he means is that in Christ we have great freedom, but not everything we want to do is honoring to God.  I belong to Christ, but if I were to continue sinning, my life would not glorify God.  Rather, we are to be examples of Christ on this earth and live in ways that are pleasing and honoring to him!