1 Corinthians 6
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? – Vs 20 NET
I'm a control freak. At least when it comes to controlling me. I want to control everything about me – what I do, where I go, what I think about, what I enjoy, what I classify as sin, and what I'm willing to give up. I want to control the hours in my day and how I use them. I want to control all my possessions and who I share them with. I want to control the present and the future. And if anyone tries to wrestle control away from me, they will be in for quite a fight. Sadly to say, I sometime even find myself fighting God for control of my life. Paul says that I am no longer the manager of my life. My life, my body, my soul … it all belongs to God. He purchased my life with the life of His own Son. Paul reminds me, "for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body" (Vs 20 NLT). I was purchased out of slavery to sin by God, and at a very high price. Peter puts it this way: "For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God" (1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT).
Not only did God purchase me, He filled me. He filled me with His own Spirit. I have the very Spirit of Christ living in me. So as Paul puts it, "Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for?" (Vs 20 MSG). My body is a sacred place. It is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. I am under new management and I have a new tenant. On top of that, I am under a constant state of renovation as God transforms me into the likeness of His Son. I am being sanctified daily…a process Paul explains in verse 11: "…now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you."
I am no longer in control. Sure, I try to take back control all the time. But the Holy Spirit gently reminds me that He lives in me so that He might direct my life. He knows the will of God and wants to direct me life into that will each and every day. He wants to use my body and my life to glorify God. That is what it means to be set apart or sanctified. I have been set apart by God for His use. I belong to Him. I am not to be used for anything else. My hands, feet, mind, eyes, heart, emotions…they all belong to Him. And I am not to take what is holy and use them for unholy purposes. "The person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (Vs 17 NLT). I am His and He is mine. I am under new management.
Father, may my life increasingly reflect the fact that I am under new management. May I show with my actions that it is You who are is control of my life and not me. Amen