Who Do You Belong To?

Who do you belong to? I know you know the answer to that question. When it is asked in the context of the church bulletin, we know the answer should probably be in the same context. Our minds start to work and we come up with all the possible spiritual or religious answers – Jesus, The Holy Spirit, our Heavenly Father, the entire fellowship of Christians. You know, any of those will get you in the general area even if you don’t hit the exact context the one asking the question may have wanted.

If the question were asked at a larger social gathering you may have pointed to your spouse, date, or other person across the room and replied, “Oh, I’m with. . .”

Within our religious context though, why is it that we so often act as if we are our own? I Corinthians 6:19,20 tells us something quite different; “You are not your own. You have been bought with a price.”

That’s correct. You have been bought and paid for. You no longer own your own life. You no longer have the final say on anything anymore. It is indeed appropriate when the Scripture calls us servants of Christ.

If that is indeed correct, and it is, it is our highest goal to do the will of our master. We bend our will to his. What he labels as important, that very thing moves to the top of our task list. We don’t get to make the rules anymore.

In light of this, what are those things our Master has labeled as priorities? Love one another, even to the same degree that he has loved us. Go everywhere, telling everyone of the grace and mercy of our Savior. Shelter the homeless. Feed the hungry. Give to those in need with no thought of return. Clothe the naked. Seek justice for the weak. Deliver the oppressed. Forgive because we have been forgiven much.

My goodness! It seems like we have a great deal to do. We pull out our list of things to do and scan through each item. If you’re like me, you will quickly find that only a handful of them would fit into God’s priority list for the day. Indeed, we arrive at the end of the day to find the hungry still hungry, the homeless still exposed to the elements, the lonely sitting by themselves, our enemy not reconciled to us, the oppressed still oppressed, and those in need of the Light of Jesus Christ still wandering in the dark. Maybe it is time to plan our day as we read the Scriptures, centering our planning around our theology instead of our own desires.

Pastor Craig