Not Your Own: Let Belonging to Christ Shape Your Choices
You belong to the Lord who gave himself for you. Let that love reach your private choices, your habits, and the way you use your body.
#358 — Not Your Own
Jan 20, 2025
Play the original Excel Still More episode here without leaving the article.
Remember whose you are
It helps to remember who is speaking when God tells us to leave a sin behind. The Lord who calls us to change is the Lord who offers cleansing through Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul speaks to people Christ has cleansed and called into a new life. Their bodies matter because they belong to Him. The closing appeal is deeply personal: they have been bought with a price and are to glorify God in their bodies.
Before asking how close we can get to a wrong choice, we ought to ask a better question: Whose are we? Christ hasn't bought a small corner of our lives. A Christian isn't an independent owner occasionally making room for God. Redemption changes the purpose of life. This belonging is a gift that calls for a faithful response, not a claim that a person can earn salvation through careful conduct. The Lord who saves us also teaches us how to live.
Hear the warning and the hope
Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 is serious. He names sexual wrongdoing alongside greed, theft, drunkenness, and cruel speech. Its range matters: moral seriousness can't be limited to the sins that draw the most public attention. Dishonesty and cruel speech also contradict the life God calls His people to pursue. The warning should make us examine ourselves before using it only to discuss someone else.
But don't stop reading before verse 11. Paul reminds these Christians that they have been washed, sanctified, and justified through the Lord Jesus and God's Spirit. Their past did not make a new life impossible. The passage neither excuses continued wrongdoing nor treats people as permanently defined by it. Christian teaching should preserve that combination of truth and hope, calling people to repentance while honoring the cleansing that Christ makes possible.
Freedom needs a faithful purpose
In verse 12, Paul answers the claim that all things are lawful. His reply is plain: some things don't help us, and we mustn't let anything become our master. Paul's response clearly refuses an unlimited permission to pursue whatever one wants.
We can make the same mistake today by treating forgiveness as permission to keep doing wrong. Romans 6:1–2 asks whether we should continue in sin so grace can increase, and answers firmly that we shouldn't. Freedom in Christ is freedom from sin's dominion for a life of obedience, not permission to remain under it. Ask whether a habit is helping you serve the Lord or gaining mastery over your attention and choices. An attractive excuse can't change the character of what Scripture forbids. A habit doesn't have to control every hour before its mastery becomes worth questioning. Notice what happens when you try to set it aside. Do you become secretive, break promises, or keep making exceptions you wouldn't advise someone else to make? Those observations can help you stop defending the habit in general terms and deal with the way it's actually affecting obedience.
A desire doesn't get the final word
A strong appetite doesn't settle a moral question. In 1 Corinthians 6:13, Paul says that the body is for the Lord, refusing to treat sexual conduct as merely another desire to satisfy. A feeling can be powerful without giving a person permission to act on it. Attraction, anger, or the desire for another person's possessions may be real experiences, but they still need the direction of God's teaching.
We should speak about that struggle with compassion. Being tempted isn't the same as giving in, and a struggling Christian needs truthful encouragement rather than disgust. The question is the conduct and direction chosen in response. God's moral will isn't set by the intensity of a feeling or by the fact that a desire seems familiar. Christian self-control acknowledges the difficulty while seeking an obedient course. It's possible to tell the truth about temptation without allowing temptation to decide what truth means.
Your body matters to God
God raised Jesus, and Paul says he will raise believers too. Our bodies belong to Christ now and have a future in God's promise. The body isn't a spiritually irrelevant shell whose use has no bearing on faithfulness. The passage gives bodily conduct significance because of the believer's relationship with Christ, the Spirit's presence, and the resurrection God promises.
Paul calls the believer's body a temple of the Holy Spirit in verses 19–20. That's a powerful reason to treat the body with respect and use it for God's glory. Respecting the body includes refusing sexual immorality, but the chapter's wider warning also challenges the use of our hands, speech, and strength for dishonest or harmful purposes. Think about the dignity this gives the person you're tempted to use. Another body isn't a tool for your pleasure or a picture without a person behind it. Christ's teaching calls us to honor people in what we watch, what we ask of them, and how we speak about them. That respect can guide a refusal long before a situation becomes a crisis.
Move away from the temptation
Sometimes the faithful next step is to leave. Verse 18 tells us to flee sexual immorality, giving a clear direction even where readers have questions about the verse's comparison with other sins. The unmistakable instruction is to move away from immorality rather than remain nearby searching for permission.
What would fleeing look like in your circumstances? You may need to end private messages that have become improper, leave a compromising situation, or ask a trusted Christian to help you keep a necessary boundary. Choose a safeguard that addresses your real temptation. Don't wait until every desire disappears before taking the next obedient step. Fleeing can begin with a clear action today, supported by prayer, honest conversation, and the willingness to accept help. Prepare for the moment that keeps catching you. If late-night isolation repeatedly brings temptation, make the needed arrangement before you're tired. If a conversation has crossed a line, explain the boundary plainly instead of hoping it will somehow become harmless. A specific plan gives your desire to obey somewhere to go when emotion is strong.
Answer grace with obedient faith
God's gift calls for a response. Acts 2:38 teaches repentance and baptism in Jesus' name for the forgiveness of sins. Romans 10:9–10 speaks of faith and confession. These responses don't purchase grace; they answer the gracious invitation of the Lord who saves. Belonging to Him then calls for continuing faithfulness rather than a claim that future conduct no longer matters.
When we sin, hiding it doesn't help us heal. First John 1:7–9 points us toward walking in the light and confessing our sins, trusting the cleansing Christ provides. Repentance should include addressing the conduct and making necessary repair where another person has been harmed. Such obedience isn't an alternative to reliance on grace. It's the response of someone who trusts the Lord enough to stop defending what He has called sinful.
Take belonging into today's choices
Our present life is passing, but it isn't pointless. Second Corinthians 5:1–10 directs our hope beyond this temporary dwelling and calls us to please the Lord. We shouldn't turn the passage into a claim that salvation is earned by maintaining a flawless body or achieving a particular level of health. Its call is to live for the Lord in the life and circumstances we've.
Bring this truth into one decision you have been putting off: I belong to Christ. Let it guide what you do when nobody else is watching, as well as the choices other people see. The answer may require a change that's costly but clear. Remember also the price already given for your redemption. God is calling you toward the dignity of His service, with forgiveness available through Christ and a faithful next step within reach.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Which choice have I treated as though it belongs to me alone?
- 02What practical change would help me flee a temptation rather than bargain with it?
Prefer listening?
The original episode player is available near the top of this article, so you can listen without leaving the page.
