Articles
Who Is Your Lord?
In medieval times, most people were farmers who worked all the time just to be able to provide food for themselves and their families. Very few people were landowners, for that was reserved for the King. The King owned all the land and allotted fiefs to Lords [a fief is a portion of land for growing the food, with at least a small village with housing for the servants, and with a house for the Lord], and the Lord was in charge of the fief, and had to pay the King rent, taxes, and provide soldiers whenever the King needed them. The Lord was given absolute power over his fief and, within the fief, the Lord's word was the law. Whatever the Lord said, the people had to do.
Lords existed long before medieval times, however. As the Israelites were settling the land of Canaan, God told Caleb he would receive the land of “the five lords of the Philistines” (Josh. 13:3); Paul reminded the Corinthian brethren, “there are many gods and many lords” (1 Cor. 8:5); Peter instructed the elders to serve as examples to the flock, not “as being lords over those entrusted to you” (1 Pet. 5:3); and Jesus, in trying to make a point about humility being more important than having a visible position of authority, reminded the apostles, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them…Yet it shall not be so among you” (Matt. 20:25-27). Being a lord meant having power and authority, and it was inherent in the position and/or title. From the words of Peter and Jesus, it should also be noted that some lords abused the power and authority they had.
Whether we realize it or not, all men serve someone [or, something] as lord; no it isn’t like the lords of medieval times or even Biblical times, but someone or something is lord over us. Remember, Jesus told us, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:32-34). Paul would also note in his words to the brethren at Rome, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16); we are either slave to sin or slave to righteousness, but one of them is our lord!
This brings us to the question of the day: Who is your lord? While we may not think so, someone — or something — is our lord; whatever rules us and controls us is our lord, and the difference between our lord today and those of old is that we have a choice in who [or, what] is our lord. Who is your lord?
Sin, or Righteousness? Just a few verses earlier, the apostle Paul had reminded the Roman brethren that they were now dead to sin in Christ, and admonished them, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Rom. 6:12). The point here is that disciples of Jesus Christ must not allow sin to be their lord anymore. It did before we came to Christ, for Paul noted that, then, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Eph. 2:3). Then, we willingly allowed ourselves to be ruled by our fleshly desires, which inevitably led us into sin. We did so because we desired sin!
As Christians, this must not be our lord any longer; we must “put to death” such desires (Col. 3:5). In fact, Paul wrote to the Roman brethren, thankful they had “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And…became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17, 18). Those brethren had rejected sinful desires as their lord, and chose righteousness, instead. So must we!
Fleshly Desires, or Self? This may sound illogical, since our fleshly desires come from within self, but hear the words of the wise writer: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls” (Prov. 25:28). The point here is, we can allow our fleshly desires to rule us, or we can rule over them in exercising self-control. Without self-control, we are like that ancient city with walls broken down, leaving ourselves vulnerable to outside forces which can quickly overwhelm us and defeat us. It is a lack of self-control that will allow temptations to lead us into sin (cf. Jas. 1:13, 14), but self-control that answers every temptation when it comes.
The power and usefulness of self-control is seen in another of the Proverbs: “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Prov. 16:32). Simply put, the one who exercises self-control is more powerful than the strongest man; a strong man cannot force me to resist temptations, but I can. It is here we must decide what is going to rule us: Will it be a desire for the fulfillment of fleshly desires, or our will to resist? Here, we must admit that striving to resist fleshly desires alone will quite often be difficult, if not impossible. Here is where we need to make someone else Lord over us!
Christ, or Self? This is not a contradiction, but just another way to look at what ‘self’ means. In the last section, ‘self’ ruled over fleshly desires; here, ‘self’ is the fleshly desires. Peter’s admonition to the early disciples was that they “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” and be ready to answer others when they asked them about why they were believers (1 Pet. 3:15, NASB). The part we must note here is that we have to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts! This means this ‘self’ cannot be ruler any longer, but we must humble ourselves and lift Christ up to honestly and truly rule over us. To overcome those fleshly desires and to overcome sin, we must make Christ our Lord!
And as our Lord, we must recognize [as with the fief lords] He has all authority, and whatever He says, we must do. That is, in fact, how it should be, for Jesus Himself said He has been given all authority (Matt. 28:18). Obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ should not even be a question but, in fact, Jesus had to once ask, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46); good question!
There are many people even today who proclaim Christ as their ‘Lord’ but, in reality, have enthroned themselves and refuse to let Him have a say in what they believe, practice, and teach. Many churches around the world and just down the street proclaim Him as ‘Lord’ but have creeds and mere men who have superseded Christ as the sole authority, even as they claim to be ‘Christian.’ Who, really, is your lord? Is Christ truly your Lord? —— Steven Harper
