Glorify the Owner

So... whose are you, anyway?

Let's say I worked long and hard and scrimped and saved to buy that car I've always wanted. My dream car. After years of blood, sweat, and tears the whole purchase price was collected and I went down to the dealer and exchanged the money for the car. I get into my baby and drive oh, so carefully home. I park it in the garage, wipe the dust from the drive off the doors and bumpers, and go inside. Meanwhile, the neighbor's teenager comes over and, wowed by the shiny newness and the obvious power under the hood, decides to take MY BABY for a ride. Problem...he doesn't know how to drive. Not to worry, he gets in anyway, tries to imitate what he's seen his dad do a thousand times, and puts MY BABY in reverse. Bam! The left rear bumper now carries a sample of the paint of my garage. Bam! That lovely lilac bush is now leveled. Bam! I thought that mailbox would stand forever! I hear the racket, run to the window, and fall to my knees in abject horror as I see MY BABY, my just-a-moment-ago-dust-free-shiny-new BABY half way in the street with scratches and dents and a crazed teen running for his life.

What would YOU do?

That's a scenario none of us would ever want to experience. Yet I give it as a SMALL, FAINT illustration of what so many of us have done with our lives. What I have done with my life and my body for so long!

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

"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."

Note:

• This may be something we do not know: God the Holy Spirit lives within us and dwells in us as His temple. The Jewish temple was a sacred and holy place. The MOST SACRED and HOLY place on earth. Why? Because the HOLY GOD chose to be there. It was a place that was to be revered, respected, and entered with awe. It was totally set apart for God's purposes and for His service. We are God's temple.
• God living in us does NOT mean that God needs to come along for the ride and adjust to our "lifestyle choices." God living in us means WE ARE NOT OUR OWN. Whatever we do with our lives and with our bodies is done WITH ANOTHER's PROPERTY! We are HIS BELOVED, we are His PROPERTY.
• He is living in us and we are His property because we were BOUGHT WITH A PRICE! What was the price? 1 Peter 1:19: "The precious BLOOD OF CHRIST." God paid what was infinitely most precious to Him to purchase you and me to Himself - His SON. Jesus' perfect life cruelly tortured and publicly humiliated on the cross for the sin of sinners was the price God paid to make us His. Oh, think about it.
• We are not our own. God paid for us. The proof of ownership is the Holy Spirit living in us. The END of the matter: "So GLORIFY God in your body" v.20.

My redeemed life as a believer is NOT for my glory, NOT to take for a joy ride (I don't know how to drive this life in any way but to destroy it!), NOT to live out my purposes... it is for GOD's GLORY. He is to be the end of all my living. I am HIS. If I do not live my life His way, I abuse and misuse His property. I ignore the price He paid for me. I spite the suffering of Christ to make me God's. I callously take what is precious to my Father in Heaven and ruin it.

Oh, let us all repent of our foolishly living as if we owned ourselves. Let us bow in humble sorrow for taking what is precious to God (because of the PRICE that was paid) and going on a "joy" ride that in the end only wrecks HIS BABY.