Articles
We Are The Lord's
The apostle Paul, in his letter to the brethren in Rome, addressed the matter of eating and drinking and whether or not it is right to eat or not eat certain foods or drink certain drinks. His conclusion, in which he was “convinced by” the highest authority — “the Lord Jesus” (Rom. 14:14), was that there “is nothing unclean of itself.” That said, he also said, “but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
The essential teaching on this matter had to be addressed because some brethren of either side in the dispute were condemning the other for their practice; though it is not clear if it was the non-eaters who condemned those who ate, or those who ate condemned those who did not, Paul sought to stop the judging altogether, asking, “Who are you to judge another’s servant?” (Rom. 14:4); and whose servant are we but the Lord's? It is to this point Paul then reminds them of a fact that had somehow been forgotten: “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).
We are the Lord's.
Think about that for just a minute today, because we, like those whom Paul addressed, sometimes forget some important lessons from that fact. We forget some things that should guide and restrict our behavior, and we forget some things that should be the basis for our conduct and how we treat one another as brethren and how we treat even those in the world. Let us consider just a few today, if you will.
None of Us Is Worthy of Being His. The unnecessary judging, based on whether one ate meats or not, or drank certain drinks or not, was a silly waste of time in the whole scheme of things. These brethren were arguing over such a trivial matter, and had forgotten that none of them were worthy of being called servants of God and Christ to begin with, yet they were making arbitrary judgments about what they deemed to be someone else's unworthiness!
Let's think about the following passages for a bit that describe everyone outside of Christ:
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom. 5:6)
“…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)
“…when we were enemies we were reconciled to God…” (Rom. 5:10)
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23)
“…we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind…” (Rom. 2:3)
“…both Jews and Greeks…are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’” (Rom. 3:9, 10)
There are many more, but consider this short list of descriptions of us before Christ came: ungodly, sinners, enemies of God, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind, and none were righteous. Pick any one of those descriptive terms and then please tell me which one of those descriptive terms show us worthy of being called the Lord's. That's right; we were not worthy of being called His, and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy, yet He was willing to call us His. Since none of us was worthy of being called His, isn't it beyond ridiculous to start taking it upon ourselves to argue over the worthiness of others? Let us not forget that all servants of the Lord are His, and it is He alone who is worthy to judge any other one of His servants. Not you, and not me; He alone.
We Are His. This seems like an obvious point, but let us emphasize it for just a minute, nonetheless. We are the Lord's. We belong to no one else but Him. As His servants, we are to emulate Him (Matt. 10:24, 25) and serve Him only (Matt. 6:24); we do not follow after any man and we do not bow to anyone other than the one who died for us.
Again, that may sound like a given, but His servants do forget this from time to time and try to split their time between serving Him and following the ways of the world; but, as He clearly stated, it cannot be done no matter how hard we try — and we shouldn't even try. God, from the very beginning, has demanded our singular service and worship of Him only because He alone is God. He told the Israelites, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:3) as a command, and had to remind them late in their history, “I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6). Ironically, He said this after speaking of the time when they would return from captivity and one would declare, “I am the Lord's” (Isa. 44:5). They had to learn the hard way what that was supposed to mean [faithfulness to Him], but we don't have to learn the hard way; we could simply understand and acknowledge we belong to no other, and our service and our worship is for Him only!
We Are Not Our Own Anymore. Again, and especially after the last point, this one should be obvious, but we who are His do forget! Paul reminded those in Corinth, “you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). Simply and clearly put, nothing of me is mine anymore — not body and not even my spirit; both are the Lord's, and I should be glorifying Him in body and spirit. Paul wrote to those of Galatia, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul was essentially saying, "Paul exists no longer; now, it is Christ living in me."
This should be the overriding thought of every disciple who names the name of Christ! We are not living for self any longer, or, as he would write to those in Corinth, “those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). The disciple doesn't live for himself, any more than a servant lives to serve himself; no, a servant serves the Master, and as servants of Jesus Christ, it is for Him we live and serve.
On the negative side of this, Paul put it this way: “Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom. 6:11-14). Where we once served our own fleshly lusts [while outside of Christ, cf. Eph. 2:1-3], we now put aside and put to death those desires and strive to please our Lord. We do this because we are not living to serve self anymore; we are not our own anymore!
The Lord Knows Who Are His. And lest we think we can fool anyone by simply making the claim to be the Lord's while serving self, please understand this clear statement, repeated by Paul: “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19). While some may call Him ‘Lord,’ He will not be fooled and He will know if they did not do the will of the Father (cf. Matt. 7:21-23).
Now, an important question is left now to answer: Are you the Lord's? Don't forget that He knows the answer! Do you know? Have you done His will? For whom do you now live? —— Steven Harper
