BELIEVERS ARE CHRIST's PROPERTY.
1 Cor. iii. 23. Ye are Christ's.
TRUE Christians, however poor in this world, are indeed the richest people in the universe. There is not any thing of which they have not the best use and enjoyment. All things temporal, spiritual, and eter- nal, belong to them : yet they are not so rich in the property they possess, as they are in being themselves the property of another. The Apostle is enumerating in a climax the privileges of Christians ; and having said that all things are theirs, he adds, as a more exalted privilege, that they are Christ's. To elucidate this truth, we shall consider,
I. Whose we were —
The whole creation properly belongs to God ; but mankind have alienated themselves from him : nor, whatever difference may have been made between us and others by the grace of God, is there any difference between us by nature. As long as we continue unre- generate we belong,
1. To ourselves —
[The natural man disclaims God's authority over him, and thinks himself at liberty to live to himself. This was once the state even of the Apostles themselves^: nor is there one amongst us vv^ho was not once a rebel like unto them. Our understanding, will, and affections, we used as altogether our own. The members of our bodies too we employed wholly in our own service : even in our religious actions we regarded self rather than God''. With respect to all our talents of time, money, influence, &;c. we said, " They are our own, who is Lord over us*'?"]
2. To the world—
[The world has an entire ascendency over us by nature. We adopt its maxims, follow its fashions, and obey its dictates: the pleasures, riches, and honours of it are the idols which we worship. What more can be wanting to constitute us its
•■' Tit. iii. 3. ^ Zech. vii. 6. '• Ps. xii. 4.