Owned!

Owned!

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 KJV

Paul writes to the church in Corinth, reminding them of their status in Christ. This is the most important consideration for all of us today - the question of ownership. It is ownership that defines pursuits and priorities. If I know who I am, and who I belong to, it saves me from unnecessary comparison or unhealthy competition with anyone else. I was not made like any other person, and I am not expected to live like anyone else. It will be a lack of understanding or appreciation of who I am that will lead me to seek to copy another man or to pattern my life exactly like anyone else. As I take stock of my life right now, what are my life choices? Does my life look like one that has its ownership status clearly defined or is there any doubt as to where I stand? 

Today's extract is another reminder of the eternal importance of this issue. What does it mean to be the temple of God? It does not refer to me as A temple, but as THE temple, which means that there is only one true version of the temple. A temple is a place of great reverence, where the one who is worshipped in the temple has accepted as the place of worship, and where he is willing to put his name. It is a place where all who seek the one to be worshipped must align with the terms and conditions for worship. 

I cannot come into the temple and seek to impose my own will on the one to be worshipped; the one to be worshipped is the one who lays down the rules and is able to punish all who breach the rules of engagement. Do I understand what I have been called into? Do I know the One who calls me to worship him, and have I taken time to learn what he wants, so I can do what he wants? It also means that if I decide not to align with the rules, I open myself up to grave punishment. If I will then avoid evil, I must just fit into the mold laid out by the One who calls me to worship. After all, I did not know him before, but now that I claim to know him, the least I can do is worship him as he wants. Any other thing is sheer rebellion. 

And for everything that God owns, his mark of ownership is on it. It does not matter how useless the world thinks a person is, as long as that person is owned by God, there is both an earthly and eternal usefulness to that person. After all, the world's opinion does not count on people it does not own or control. The world loves to pretend that it is also an owner, and yes, it may have some people under its bondage but it does not really own them. When the owner of the whole world comes, all things will be brought in subjection under him. For now, I do not worry about the world's view and its drama; I just focus on the God who makes a claim to me. I seek to please him as my Lord, because I know that whatever he owns and holds is safe from all evil. 

The Holy Spirit is the physical and spiritual mark of ownership of God upon my life. His presence in me must lead to an external change in me. The world must know that I now serve a different master and also dance to a different tune now. The Holy Spirit is also that inner witness in my inner man, confirming all that God is and says, and preserving my feet as I walk towards eternity. He is that quiet voice telling me that I am his child and on my way to the promised land. The extract for today is couched in form of a question, which all of man must answer at some point in time in their lives. You can answer it now, of your own freewill, deciding for God and choosing to follow him, or you get the choice made for you by force when your will can no longer be exercised. While I have time, I must sort out the question of my ownership. My eternal reality rests on the answer. His time of favour is here.