1 PETER 4:1-2 – “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

THEME OF THE DAY: ALL OF US, ALL THE TIME.    There are two words correctly describing what we are as Christians in the eyes of the Lord Jesus.

One is found in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians – “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is the word bought and the price to pay was high –  “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:17-19). The truth of being bought by the precious blood of Christ is that we are redeemed or purchased out of the dark kingdom of Satan and placed in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of our King Jesus.  Our understanding of being bought by Christ leads to the second word describing us as Christians before Him.

It is a natural progression from the first word to the second. The Apostle Peter would identify it for us in his first letter – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).  The word is possession.   We are not our own.  We were bought by the Lord Jesus to be completely owned by the Lord Jesus.  Too many Christians lack joy because they don’t realize and live these realities of being bought by the Lord to be totally owned by or to be the possession of the Lord.  What happens is that Christians attempt to live wanting to do the Lord’s will and theirs.  He will not accommodate that arrangement.

In today’s scripture, the Apostle Peter instructs us that a life bought by the Lord to be owned by the Lord means we are “under new management” for the rest of life – “so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God”.  The period “for the rest of the time in the flesh” is how long the Lord leaves us on this planet.  What is being applied is that the Christian is to live with one single will – the will of God.  When Christ bought us to own us, our wills are to be submitted to His and that moment by moment.  Christians don’t live under the direction both of God’s will and his or her own will.  Surrender, complete surrender, happens at conversion.  From then on, the Christian life is one of learning daily to completely surrender our wills to God’s will.

So, here it is . . . the Christian life is the bought by Christ’s life to be the possessed by Christ’s life and that means all of us, all the time.

PRAYER: Lord, help me daily to live under the control of Your Spirit and committed to Your will, not mine.

REFLECTION:  Jesus bought us with His precious blood to live under His authority, care, and doing His will.