1 Corinthians 6:19–20, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
One of the foundational beliefs in the present Western world is “I am my own,” or in other terms, “autonomy.”
“I can do what I want with my body”; “I can do what I want with my life”; “I am my own master.” At least in the United States, these sort of statements are central to the cultural creed and to oppose them is tantamount to blasphemy.
But for the disciple of Christ, autonomy (which was a phantom truth to begin with) is crucified and replaced by an absolute “Christonomy.” We are NOT our own masters, we do NOT belong to ourselves, we are NOT free to do whatever we want with our bodies….we actually BELONG to another: to God in Christ.
Consider how radically counter-cultural it is, not only to say that we are owned by someone else, but to rejoice in the death of our hell-bent “self-rule.” Christian, we are Christ’s….our body, our mind, our affections, our flesh and our blood, our days and our minutes, our money and possessions….all that we are BELONGS to Christ, purchased by His death, reigned over by His life.
And so, we glorify God—that is, we live to communicate His excellency in Christ—with these bodies. When the night of temptation steals over us and we desire to employ our bodies in self-centered pursuits, may the radiance of this truth break through the gloom and bind us to our Master, who is our true and deepest gladness.
