You are reading an open letter from a prominent preacher. He is not without his critics, of course, but you find him profoundly interesting. It is a long letter, and part-way down on the second page, you come across this startling line: “For everything belongs to you … Everything belongs to you.”
“Uh-oh,” you think, “he must be one of those prosperity gospel preachers. Health and wealth. Name it, claim it! These guys are all the same.”
But this guy is not a prosperity gospel preacher. He comes from a much older generation of Bible teachers. You could even say that he comes from the original generation of Bible teachers, for the words I’ve quoted above come from the pen of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).
Those words, “Everything belongs to you,” are among the most surprising Paul ever wrote. They occur in the context of his plea for unity among the status-hungry Corinthian Christians. He urged them to stop carving up the church of Jesus Christ into Paul and Apollos and Cephas (Peter) factions. The Corinthians were acting as if these teachers owned them. Paul saw it the other way round: “All things are yours,whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas…” (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).
To Paul, the divisions in the Corinthian church were a shame. I use the word intentionally. It brought shame on these people to whom everything belonged to act as if they were minions and toadies. Paul was theirs, and so was eloquent Apollos and brave Cephas. They should make use of them.
Paul had a soaring vision of the freedom and authority of ordinary Christians. Whatever might happen to them, they have the power to make it their own. The world was theirs; they owned it. So, why carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, as if they were its servants? They could make the world serve them.
Life was theirs. How would they employ it? Would they complain about life, as a worker complains about an imperious boss? Would they be a cog in the wheel of life, forced to do what they could not help doing, or would they take control, forcing life to serve their purpose?
Not only did life belong to the Corinthians, so did death (Paul has in mind their own deaths, not someone else’s). Since Jesus wrested death from the service of the evil one (Hebrews 2:14-15) and made it a slave in his Father’s house, death cannot hurt God’s children. It is, admittedly, an ugly and ill-mannered slave, but Christians needn’t fear it. When death comes for them, they can use it to help them fulfill their purpose.
The Corinthians could also own the present. Too many people are enslaved by the past and incapable of taking ownership of the present. Things that happen around them or happen to them resist their control. They are powerless before them.
For some people, the future is a greater tyrant than the past. Everything they do and say must satisfy the future’s demands. They dare not spend money; the future may require it. They dare not put their thoughts in writing; it may come back to haunt them in the future. They dare not have children—who knows what harm the future might cause?
In Paul’s glorious vision of the Christian life, Jesus’s people have the power to force the world, life, death, things present, and things to come to serve their purpose. But Christians can only do this if they know their purpose and where they fit in the divine scheme of things.
Where they fit becomes clear in Paul’s next line: “All are yours, and you are Christ’s…” All things are the Christians when the Christian is Christ’s. I think that the house with my name on the deed belongs to me, but that house will have me as its slave if I am not careful. I will spend my time serving it, thinking about its needs, trying to make it look good, and spending my hard-earned money and valuable time to provide for it. But when I belong to Christ, I can take ownership of the house, giving it its due (maintenance, insurance payments, even landscaping and a fresh paint job), but using it to serve my needs, not the other way around.
It is similar with all the things on Paul’s list. For example, as a pastor and former Hospice chaplain, I have seen how death could own people, order their every thought and action—and not just those on death’s doorstep. Some people pass their days (I won’t say they live) in fear of death. But I’ve also seen people own death, take control of it, and make it serve them.
But this is only possible for those who know where they fit and who know their purpose. What is their purpose? Put briefly, it is to glorify God by becoming like Jesus. Once someone has adopted that as their one great purpose in life, everything is bound to serve them. Life will help them become like Jesus, even its daily irritations and setbacks. Death will help them become like Jesus, and they will not fear it. Things present (the overbearing parent, the unexpected interruption, the beautiful sunset) will serve them in reaching their goal. Things future (the job interview, the debt payment, the midterm elections) will line up to help them.
Everything must serve the person whose overarching goal is to glorify God by becoming like Jesus. When that is not a person’s goal, he or she will end up enslaved to life, death, the world, the present, and the future. To such people, Paul’s compelling vision of the free and strong Christian can only seem like a fantasy.
In Paul’s glorious vision of the Christian life, Jesus’s people have the power to force the world, life, death, things present, and things to come to serve their purpose.
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