Everything Belongs to You

Everything Belongs to You

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

There are several pastors to whom I enjoy listening. These are great men of God, and when I listen to them, I almost always walk away with something I had never seen before. But when they point out these things, I always go and study it out against what the Bible says, keeping it in context. I always remember that they are just people and can be wrong. I love learning new things, plus listening to these men helps me stay in the word since I always research what I learned. By the way, I hope everyone reading this blog does the same thing. Don’t ever take what I say as gospel, I am human, and as I always told my sons, I could be wrong, I was once before.

One of these pastors that I highly respect and listen to regularly does something with which I greatly disagree. It’s not any form of heresy, but it does go against scripture, though he clearly doesn’t see it that way. This man of God regularly talks about how he is a Calvinist; he even went as far as to name his son Calvin. Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with highly respecting another human, or even naming your child after that person. Michelle and I named our sons Joshua and Caleb, but to label yourself a Calvinist is the same as saying, “I am of Paul” or “I am of Apollos.” As we read a few weeks ago, “When one of you says, ‘I am a follower of Paul,’ and another says, ‘I follow Apollos,’ aren’t you acting just like people of the world?” 1 Corinthians 3:4.

Paul must have thought this to be an important topic as he repeats it at the end of the chapter. He wraps up this part of his letter by saying, “²¹ So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God” in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

I love what David Guzik has to say about this, “Let no one glory in men: How prone we are to glory in men! We are more excited about being with the influential and famous of this world than about being with God. We value the gifts and honors of men more than the gifts and honors God gives. How we need to hear, let no one glory in men!” This is so true, so often we take more pride in the humans we follow then in God.

Here’s the thing, because we are in Christ, all things are our servants, even death itself. Nothing but Christ is our master; we are no longer a slave to sin or this world. This verse says that everything belongs to us, we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to the Father. This is why the Bible talks so much about our freedom in Christ. Paul says in Galatians 5:1, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” Then he goes on to say, “¹³ For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. ¹⁴ For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.” Galatians 5:13-15.

So, because we are in Christ, all things are under our feet. Due to this, we have freedom in Christ. But here’s the thing, our freedom in Christ is a freedom to do what pleases Him; it is not a freedom to sin. As we just saw in verses 13-15, we are never to use that freedom to satisfy our lusts, that will make us a slave to sin again and would mean that Christ died in vain. And, through our unity in the body of Christ, we can’t let our freedom become a stumbling block to weaker believers.

Michelle and I are preparing to go back to Cedar Key to do ministry. Cedar Key is the island community we planted a Church in back in 2009 and God is calling us back. Through our freedom in Christ, we could drink alcohol, despite what many legalists say, the Bible never says it is a sin to drink, but we are going there to minister to addicts and alcoholics. If we were to drink in front of them and cause some of the new believers who had been slaves to alcohol to stumble, that would be a sin. With freedom comes responsibility.

But going back to our text, because we have this freedom in Christ, because all things are under our authority through Him, why in the world would we take so much pride in following any man? All things belong to me because I belong to Christ, and he belongs to the Father. Paul summed it up well in Galatians 6:14-16 when he said, “¹⁴ As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. ¹⁵ It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. ¹⁶ May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.”

Why would we boast in Paul, or Apollos, or Calvin, or Wesley when, in Christ, all things in this life belong to us? Our Father is the King of kings; He is the Lord of lords. He is the Alpha and the Omega. That’s what we should be boasting in!