Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)When I heard "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price", I started thinking. If I belong to myself, then every decision I make is going to be for my own benefit because, after all, I'm the one I answer to. Even if I do something for someone else, ultimately, my goal is for the good deed to come back around. All my plans are going to be with my best future in mind. Even if I have to step on other people.
But this verse says that I am not my own. I don't get to make the calls on my own life anymore.
Coming from someone who struggles with control, this is not an easy statement. I don't belong to myself? I'm not in charge of my life? But what if whoever is in control doesn't take me where I go, doesn't have my best interests in mind?
Under most circumstances, these questions would be completely valid. But this is not most circumstances. This is Jesus, coming to earth to take our punishment and die and rise again to bring us into eternal life. This is the Jesus who loves us enough to save us. And now that we've been bought from our sins, all we must do is follow Him.
Yet, we still get up every day, make our breakfast (or not, if you prefer), go to school/work, see friends/family/people, and hopefully eat a few times before we go to bed. During the day, we make decisions regularly just to get us through our day, and rarely do we ever think about whether what we're doing is pleasing to God. We just go about our lives and try to make them as comfortable as we can.
Friends, if we belong to Christ, shouldn't our lives reflect that? Shouldn't our everyday decisions and attitudes scream the love of Jesus to a broken world?
Don't get me wrong: it's easy to snap back at someone who says something mean to you; it's hard to return a kind answer. It's easy to hold a grudge for a day or two until the offender straightens back out; it's hard to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it. It's easy to have a bad attitude, or to entertain a sinful thought, or to ignore an opportunity to show love; it's almost impossible to keep a godly mindset as we walk through a day in a sinful world.
But that's what Jesus is here for: He came to save us from our sins. He'll give us strength to overcome even our worst habits and addictions. His Spirit can prompt us to become more holy, as He is holy.
In order to do that, however, we have to give up control. Brothers and sisters, it's time for us to be bold! It's time for us to stop living like Christians when it's convenient and living like the world when it's not. It's time for us to realize that we are not our own...God has bought us with a great price and we belong to Him.
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