and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
6 sermons cite this verse
… Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, everything already belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. There is a rising feeling that our world is on the brink of something cataclysmic. The Apostle Paul, repeating the warnings of the Lord Jesus before him, confirms that the day is coming. God, who is a consuming fire will judge the world with justice by his son, Jesus God revealed this plan to everyone when he raised Jesus from the dead The world, like an overmature forest will burn It will burn as a matter of consequence It must burn God has decided it not because God hates the world and wants only to see it burn, not because he's jealous of humans, but because he pities us. He has mercy on us. He sent his son Jesus because he loves us. We broke faith with God. We fell in love with our own cleverness. …
… that by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to you and you are in him and he is in you. You are in Christ. And so to marry in the Lord means that two people who are both in Christ marry each other. Marriage is, of course, a creation ordinance. Non-Christians can get married. They do get married. We want people to be married. But to be married in the Lord is to join together two people who are both in their most fundamental, foundational identity in Christ. The Bible teaches over and over, especially in Genesis 2, sex is when the two become one. You've heard me say this before. Why one? Not just that you're close. If you hug someone, it doesn't make you married, thankfully. You're saying, that's why you Dutch people don't hug. I get it. If you hold someone's hand, you're not married. Why one? It's oneness, not just closeness, not just a physical closeness, but a oneness of biological function. To be one, male and female, is if no effects of the fall are present or old age or infirmity, that relationship is the relationship from which children can be born. By definition, a man and a man coming together or a woman and a woman coming together cannot enter into a one flesh union. They can have a sexual experience, but one flesh is not just people take off their clothes and they do something. It is one flesh in that there is one singular, unitive, generative, …
… or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. You can't separate in it anything because it all belongs to you. All spiritual blessings belong to you. All teachers belong to you. This is by God's design. Everything that the kingdom provides is for all of you. It's not as if you need to attach to one teacher who offers you more of spiritual benefits than another one. If they're equally faithful in their discharge of ministry, then they are dispensing to you the riches of the household of God, and they do that equally. So then how are we to think about pastors and teachers? It's easy for us to compare them. That goes on all the time. How are we to regard pastors and those who are in leadership over us? Well, verse 1 of chapter 4 then gets to that. Let a man regard us in this manner. …
… In other words, no one has more than another one. And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." Just an incredibly rich statement. All the kingdom realities belong to all of you, and you all belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. There shouldn't be any division, and especially not over-preferencing certain teachers over the others. But that's what was going on in Corinth to the degree that, as we just read, Paul was unable to give them deeper understanding of the truth because they manifested such fleshly attitudes. All of that leads us to chapter 4, and it begins, let a man regard us in this manner. So you're not supposed to boast in man. You're not supposed to set one teacher over another. But how are you to regard those who lead you, those who feed you, those who teach you? Let a man regard us in this manner. Here's how you're to understand the pastor, the teacher, the preacher that God places over you. …
… Then I just came back and I said, no, I'm going to leave that there. Death is a delightful friend. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 22 and 23. The apostle Paul is telling us what we have in Christ. And the Corinthians had been arguing and squabbling a little bit about what preacher they like best. And this is what Paul said, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life. Now watch this. or death are things present, are things to come. All are yours. Now of the wonderful things he says belongs to us, he says death belongs to us. It's one of our treasured possessions. It's yours. Death is yours. He thinks of death now not as an enemy, but as a servant to help us. Did you know the Bible says in Psalm 116, verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints? Did you know that the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1, verse 21, for me to die is gain? …
… Then he says, and look at this next verse, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. When I think about single verses in the Scripture, powerful they are and how full of meaning they are. This rises to the top. Listen to this. And you belong to Christ. And Christ belongs to God. Therefore, if we belong to Christ, we belong to God. And I would ask you, who do you belong to? You either belong to God through Christ, or you belong to the to the devil, one of the two. Some people say, Well, I don't believe in the devil, unwise believe. So, with that in mind, I want us to look at this whole issue of wise and unwise lifestyle and how people are living it. And the Scripture distinguishes it between here. So, let's look at wise living for a moment. And the first thing we want to do is define what do we mean by true, genuine wisdom? Godly wisdom, that's real wisdom. …