July 17, 2021 I WILL NOT BE MASTERED
1 Corinthians 3:7, 11-12 “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sanctified.” “And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”
We are called to live like those who belong to God. When we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were made new, our sins were forgiven, we were sanctified, we were joined to God, and we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God. The two kingdoms are distinct; they cannot be blended together. We must understand that at the point of our salvation, we were not renovated, but were made new creations-the old passed away; this is the very point Paul was making to the believers in the Corinthian church. Paul reminded the believers that at one time they were separated from Christ, but now joined to Him. God’s word was given to us that we might learn of God, that we might discover our new identity as His sons and daughters, and we were given the Holy Spirit to help us to discern and understand His word. The obvious point is that we must continually read and study His word if we are to grow in the faith and live according to His design. There is a tendency for us to think that we know what His word says, thus there is no compelling reason to read His word. God’s word is living: “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” Again, we are called to live in such a way that pleases our Father; we either live according to His ways or according to our ways. Paul’s testimony is that he was not mastered by anything. For us, that means that we are not to be mastered by appetites, habits, selfishness, the goal of pleasing self, lack of discipline-or whatever. We are to be led by the Spirit, not our physical bodies and not by the natural. Just as a practical example that many of us can relate to is how we respond to the rude driver who cuts in front of us in heavy traffic. If we respond in anger and perhaps ‘sit on the horn,’ we are being mastered by anger. So, we can make a decision that the next time we experience the rude driver, we will not yield to anger. I know this is a crude example, but I trust it gets the point across. We have been washed and sanctified and justified, now let us live like those who belong to the Lord; let our thoughts, words and deeds flow out of who we are in Him.
2 Peter 1:5-9 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
Blessings.
Buddy
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