“19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
How many times have you heard someone say something like, “It’s my body, I’ll do as I please,” or “It’s my life and my business,” or “What I do isn’t hurting anyone else, and it’s no one’s business anyway?” If the individual is not a Christian, does the above verse apply to them? I think it does to some extent. Obviously they cannot glorify God in their body and spirit, but we are all His creation and are expected to obey His laws. Notice I said that we are all Hiscreation. We are not all His children however. That being said, let’s talk about His children, Christians.
I have heard Christians make the same statements as above. At least they claim to be Christians, so we’ll leave that between them and God and assume they are.
There is much we could criticize today about the actions of Christians, but let’s face it we would all have to stand in the circle of discipline, so to speak. None of us are perfect. However, just because we are not perfect, does not mean we just ignore these verses and live by our own set of rules, if we have any rules at all.
We Christians are a big part of the blame for most of the problems we are having in society today. Come on now. I’m willing to take the heat, so don’t be a snob. I’ve taken a switch to this same mischievous brat of a child before, but I just feel like rehashing some of it.
Immorality:
The first thing that comes to mind is the lack of morality in today’s society, and that’s putting it mildly. Immorality has always been a problem, but never has it been so open and widespread among a people who are supposed to be “civilized”.
I had a friend who used to say, “We just ain’t cultured.”
Society keeps preaching that education is the key to better living. Yeah, right. Let’s teach children the mechanics of sex in the classroom and provide them with condoms for lab work. Tell that to the parents who are now raising grand-children.
Manners:
Manners among couples, is something else I’ve noticed. How many men walk on the outside while walking with a lady, or open the door for her? I guess one could ask, “Is she a lady?” but that isn’t the point. A man should still show respect toward the opposite sex. I guess manners run short from both sexes. Too many men don’t have them, and too many women don’t want them. I’m a Southerner and am prone to say “Yes Ma’am.” That doesn’t set well with some females, but that’s their problem.
To me, to have “manners” is to demonstrate respect toward others. How much of that have you seen lately?
Law:
I remember a generation that was raised from early childhood to respect the law of the land. Now of course, not everyone did, but today that gap has widened considerably. I wonder if it could have something to do with rejection of the Ten Commandments. Sure wouldn’t surprise me. How about you?
Worship:
It seems to me people used to be really interested in wanting to know what God was saying to them. They wanted to know His Word, and would even work at memorizing passages in the Bible. They wanted to know what God wanted them to do in service to Him. Today, most just want to be entertained.
Children:
We were taught manners when I was growing up. “Respect your elders” for example. Children today, not all of course, even in Christian homes are as rude as they come. They, with the encouragement of their parents, want to be the center of attention.
Today, parents teach their children “entitlement” far more often than they teach them “responsibility.” The Beavis and Butthead mentality has certainly found a home.
Education:
There was a time when education was geared toward teaching students the three “R’s,” reading, writing and arithmetic. From the job applications I’ve seen over the years, I can assure you that it is no longer the case.
Well, I could drag this out, but let’s call it a day and move on. What does any of this have to do with “You are not your own?” It has everything to do with it. If all of us who are called Christians would live by that statement, would the world be in the mess it is in today? That includes me by the way, oh yes. I firmly believe that the answer would have to be “No.” Christians can and do have an influence on the world around them.
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
So the obvious stands before our very eyes. We the Church, as a whole, have fallen on our face in utter failure. Instead of influencing the world around us for good, we have allowed the world to influence us for bad. No wonder apostasy abounds in the 21stcentury.
I could sit here and type in a whole wheelbarrow load of individual failures of God’s people, but if we belong to Him, we know in our heart where we have failed Him and those around us. I do. So what do we do now?
I normally would not do this, but I will recommend a movie called “Courageous” starring Alex Kendrick, who is also Director and Co-Writer of the movie, that every family should see. Maybe this would be the drive to get Christians to make a change in their lives.
We all, as Christians, as our Lord’s Church, need to become very familiar with a book written by Almighty God called the Bible. It is a book that the Lord has provided for us to guide us in this life. This is how He talks to us. We speak to Him by prayer, and we listen in our soul to what He says to us by His Word, the Bible. His Spirit will guide us, but we must be willing. His Word and prayer should be a daily continuous part of our everyday lives, simply because we are not our own.
“Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” (1 Corinthians 7:23-24)
Grant Phillips