Precious
| Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1Corinthians6:19-20) |
To some extent, we need to understand that the main reason for this focus on human sinfulness was the renewed emphasis on evangelism that happened in that time. Preachers were reminding people of their need for God: "You have a problem, it's sin, and Jesus has a solution."
Unfortunately, bad news sells more newspapers than good news does, and so many many people heard and remembered "You're a sinner" instead of remembering, "God loved you so much that His Son died in your place." Even the tracts of the time mostly started with the idea of "You're in trouble... you're a sinner." In contrast, my favourite gospel tract starts with a picture showing that God lovingly created us so that we could have a relationship with Him...
The reality of our brokenness is true. We are broken by our own sin, the sin of others and the broken-by-sin world around us and theologians talk about total depravity and our total inability to save ourselves.
But this is not God's perspective...
When God looks at us He sees us as Precious:
- Worth saving.
- Worth rescuing.
- Worth dying for.
The context of this verse is that in Corinth it was common practice to engage with temple prostitutes and the drunkenness and orgies that took place in the surrounding pagan culture. Paul starts the chapter saying "...that's what some of you were..."
But He wants them to embrace a better identity.
Not broken, but bought.
Not sin-guilty, but forgiven.
PRECIOUS!
Go into the rest of this week knowing:
1. You were precious enough to die for
2. Because you were died for, you are too precious to get sucked back into brokenness.
