Ye Are Not Your Own

I Corinthians 6:19-20


What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

Imagine buying a house. The contract stipulates that the former owner is to be moved out and allow you to move in by a certain date. On the specified date you arrive with your stuf, to find that he still has not moved all his stuff, but he assures you he'll get it out. Months later, you come home to find that he is using your washer and dryer, and hanging his clothing in your closet. He has even moved back some of the furniture he had moved out. What would you do?

When you bought the house, he gave up his right to it. Anything he does in the house after the sale must be approved by you. You would not allow things which prevent you from using the house freely or which you did not want in your home. If neccessary, you would contact the police or the court to force him out.

When we accept Christ, we give up our rights, and allow him to buy us. Matthew 16:24-26 says we have to give up our desires. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? From verse 26, it is clear he is talking about being saved.

Luke 14:26, talking about the same thing, states that it is impossible to be his disciple without giving up our own will. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." This is re-iterated in verse 33. "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Many try to skip that commitment, but Jesus says it is impossible to be saved without it. Saving faith believes to that point, and makes that commitment, even though it may be unspoken. Salvation is not just a fire escape, and you can't just try Jesus.

To go back into sin after salvation is like moving back into a house we no longer own and beginning to change things to suit ourselves. We are obligated to allow him control, letting him decide what is done, and how. Our relationship to other Christians, our sex life, our marriage, and everything else is to be for his glory, not our pleasure.