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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
NOT
MY OWN
All Scripture citations are to the New International Version (UK), unless indicated otherwise.
You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honour God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20
THE HYMN, ‘Not my own, but saved by Jesus’, is essentially a paraphrase of Paul’s words in the passage quoted above. Written by the American composer, James McGranahan (1840-1907), the hymn nicely expresses the heart of Christian commitment: that having been redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, the saved man or woman may not regard his or her life as a private possession, to do with as one wishes.
The Greek word for ‘bought’ is agorazo, and means to be paid for, as in a market one might pay for a loaf of bread. See, for example, Mark 11: 15 (‘those who were buying and selling’); Luke 14: 18 (‘I have just bought a field’). Demeaning though it may seem at first glance, the word is intended to convey the transaction which occurred when Jesus died on the Cross. For there He paid the sinner’s debt, offering to God the ransom-price which will eventually cover all mankind.
Although the Apostle’s words apply especially to Christians, the fact is that no persons have the absolute right to do what they want with their own lives or bodies. As man’s Creator, God holds the first mortgage on human existence.
Welcome, Freedom
Modern democracy is a privilege long in the making, and who would want to be without it? The whole earth seeks it. To exercise one’s own will, to make commonplace decisions without fear of persecution or slavery this is a privilege beyond price, and is rightly valued in the countries which safeguard it.
As we’ve pointed out before, the blessed freedoms we enjoy in Britain have been fought for and hammered out over centuries and often after much bickering legislated into the corpus of our political constitution. And not just here. The ‘unalienable’ rights to ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ of the American Declaration of Independence are well known. Section 7 of Canada’s Charter of Rights makes a similar declaration regarding ‘life, liberty and security of the person’. The French Revolution gave us ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’. All these are noble and practical aspirations when contained within appropriate religious or social boundaries, and with due regard to fundamental justice.
Over The Side You
Go
In this increasingly secular world it is unfashionable to speak of restraints on personal emancipation. Indeed, one of the new ‘divine rights’ is that of individual choice. From this broad notion flow new liberties that run counter to the traditional, conservative mood in which just and necessary freedoms were originally developed.
The modern western world is now poised somewhere between the humiliating oppressions of the past and the libertine excesses of the future. The question could be decided either way. However, national and regional legislation increasingly takes the permissive side, touching on those stages of human life formerly regarded as semi-sacred events birth, marriage, and death. Widespread abortion, innovative forms of ‘marriage’, and legal and medical moves toward assisted death are all extensions of this interpretation of personal freedom: taking control of one’s own body. Western society, enamoured with the goddess Freedom, is shifting perceptibly towards a world without meaningful moral restraint. And regardless of the shades of reasoning necessary in crafting such legislation – pro and con – the end result is likely to be pernicious.
‘Therefore honour God with your body’
The Apostle’s sentiments underscore the fundamental principle that, since God owns us (through Christ), we should always behave in such a way as to reflect credit on Him, not abusing or misusing our bodies and our energies in ungodly and damaging pursuits. But this appeal is made not simply on the basis of raw compulsion you must, you owe but rather on the grounds of our goodwill contract with Him, one grounded in reciprocal love and affection. ‘We love, because He first loved us’ (1 John 4: 19; emphasis ours).
This reciprocity goes far beyond duty. It contains within it all the appreciation, gratitude and devotion which the ransomed soul feels toward the Saviour. It lies at the root of unselfish – agape love – that type of love which clings to righteousness because it is good. It is this highest form of love which the world in general cannot appreciate, not being spiritually minded. Without it, society will never modify its behaviour according to absolute morality, and expedience will eventually occupy the saddle.
It will be some time yet before the worst effects of these social changes will be felt. In the meantime, we must endure immoral times, like righteous Lot in Sodom, who was ‘distressed by the filthy lives’ of the lawless (2 Peter 2: 7). We do well to re-dedicate ourselves daily to the will of God in Christ, who bought us with His blood.
‘Not my own!’ my time, my
talent,
Freely all to Christ I
bring,
To be used in joyful
service
For the glory of my
King.
___________
Copyright July 2012 ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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