Journal 1 Cor 6 (all references are from the ESV; changes in punctuation are mine)
Scripture: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” 1 Cor 6:19b-20a
Observation: This is one of those eternal precepts, holy principles, that believers are expected to know and apply. It is also one of those sayings that gets tossed to the side when tussling whether to sin or not…
Analysis: As a mental help, I think of what circuit breakers do. They interrupt the flow of energy when that same energy threatens to overwhelm the system. I apply this mental picture to Sin (both ways).
As a believer, I struggle every day between being a disciple of Christ or surrendering to my own innate sin nature. Look what Paul says in Romans 6:11-14:
- So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
- Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments FOR righteousness.
- For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under Grace.
I see in this section of Romans that the wording is not passive, but it is active, vigorous, personally assertive. “Don’t let sin happen!! Be assertive, for God has set you free from the law of sin and death.” But perhaps the base principle stands: You have been bought with a price.
Guess what? Even the ones who are considered the most mature in Christ struggles to remember that “I have been bought with a price!” Why? Because the natural man doesn’t want any part of it; wants to do it without surrendering or being dependent on another. It is seen as early as childhood when babies pitch a fit because they are not getting their way, or a toddler pushing a parent’s hand away with the rejoinder, “I don’t want to!” For adults (anyone quickened to surrender to the Cross), it is being familiar with the “fruit of the flesh” compared to the “fruit of the Spirit.”
“I am not my own; I have been bought with a price…” This is not a flippant statement. This digs down deep. It is so important that the first third of Revelation is all about the Lamb who is that price and the celebration that follows, not to mention that the Lamb is a Lion.
Does the thought “I have been bought with a price” drive me to my knees, or sets my face like flint? Either response could be considered appropriate in the light of the Gospel.
You know that this is in the base declarations of being baptized? “I am symbolically dying to my old life, symbolically being resurrected into a life that now is not my own…”
Prayer: Father, I have been privileged to see both responses in others, warriors all.
I will gird up my loins (hitch up my britches), square up my shoulders and will pursue You all my days.
Amen
Ricky Two Shoes