Monday, May 26, 2014

To Be Wholly His

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

It is undoubted that our generation of Christians has become the epitome of lukewarmness. We have become so much like the world, either in a compromising state of spiritual laziness or in a vain attempt to make Christianity look easy-going and free-spirited, that we have made it nearly impossible for unbelievers to see us as any different. What's even worse is that we often praise this as being an accomplishment! 

We have become comfortably content with our lifestyles and have bought into the lie that if we go to church multiple times a week, read some scripture each day, save our first kiss until our wedding day, and maybe pray a tearful prayer every so often, we are spiritual giants. While it is true that, in comparison to most youth today, this is fairly impressive (in fact, those are all very good things), there's something wrong. If this is all that separates us from the world, we have missed the whole point. And the point is simple: we are not our own.

Now, although 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is contextually speaking about sexual immorality in the church of Corinth, Paul is using an ever-present Christian truth: that we do not belong to ourselves (see also Romans 6). Our bodies, souls, and spirits are no longer ours; they are wholly, utterly, and uncompromisingly Christ's.

Are you fully surrendering yourself to Christ? That's not rhetorical. It is absolutely vital that you answer that question for yourself with the utmost honesty. If you want to know if you are fully giving yourself to Him, answer these questions for yourself:

What do I think about the most?
What do my friends and I talk about most frequently?
Do I yearn to read God's Word and to talk to Him?
Do I obey and delight in His commandments?
If someone were to see my every action and hear my every word and thought, would they see a Christian living solely for Christ, or would my life be muddied with worldly behaviors and influences?

Let me be the first to say that I am far from passing that test. Even so, I choose to give my life completely to Him, and to surrender my paths to Him and allow Him to change my ways and make me into the image of His Son. And the more I do that, the more my thoughts become centered on Him, the more I desire to spend time in His Word, and the more I can be His servant and vessel.

Watching my generation and some of my closest friends, many of whom were once close to Christ, become swept away into a compromising state of lukewarmness hurts me deeply. Christ didn't die to save a part of us. He died to save all of us. I don't want to be my own. I want my every thought, my every word, my every action - my everything - to be wholly His.