7/14 1 Corinthians 3:22-23

²² Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

As a member of the body of Christ, everything is yours. The Corinthian factions were each claiming one particular teacher was theirs, and, of course, theirs was the best. Paul is telling them all the teachers belong to all of them. In fact, in Christ Jesus, the world, life and death, and the present and the future belong to all believers. We seldom stop to think about the wonder of our position in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). What else is there? We live to the Lord eternally. We have victory over death. The present is an opportunity to serve Him. The future is more glorious than we can imagine. What is there to fight over?

The Corinthians had not grown out of their worldly mindset of competition. In Christ there is nothing to compete over. Everything is ours! It takes spiritual growth to live by faith in this reality. We lived in the flesh for so long that our minds tend to go down the same old paths. We had thought that worldly pleasure was the goal. Now we realize that the goal is conformity to Jesus (Galatians 4:19). We thought being the best was the ideal. Now we know it is to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). In Him, everything is ours. Where He guides He provides because everything is His.

All things are yours because you belong to Christ and Christ is God's. We can give without fearing loss. We can be generous with our time because the present and the future are ours. There is no need to try to impress others or exalt ourselves. We are in the exalted One. We can obey the whisper of the Holy Spirit without any kind of fear when we realize that all is ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Consider: Do you realize the truth of these verses? Do you live in that realization?