Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“We are professors of Christianity, we pretend to be the followers of Jesus, and to make the gospel our rule. We have the Bible in our houses. Let us not behave ourselves in this particular, as if we had never see the Bible, as if we were ignorant of Christianity, and knew not what kind of religion it is. What will it signify to pretend to be Christians, and at the same time to live in the neglect of those rules of Christianity which are mainly insisted on in it? But there are several things which I would here propose to your consideration.
Consider that what you have is not your own; i.e. you have only a subordinate right. Your goods are only lent to you of God, to be improved by you in such ways as he directs. You yourselves are not your own. And if you yourselves are not your own, so then neither are your possessions your own. Many of you have by covenant given up yourselves and all you have to God. You have disowned and renounced any right in yourselves or in anything that you have, and have given to God all the absolute right. And if you be true Christians, you have done it from the heart.”
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in Christian Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced (1732) section III.
Edwards calls out the professors of Christianity whose lives don’t match the teachings as pretending. Are you pretending to be a Christian? Do you neglect the commands of Christ?
I did for years. Guilty as charged. It was actually 2006-2008 when I was working on the study notes for the Stewardship Study Bible when I felt convicted. I was a pretending professor.
I stored up treasures on earth just like the pagans and rationalized my disobedience as good stewardship. It was only when we put to work what God supplied when we took hold of life.
Sometimes we use God’s resources to do productive work and other times for giving, but we don’t hold on to them, lest they get a hold on us. Anyone who does is a pretending professor, just like I was.
If you feel convicted, hear this. Neither are you your own, nor are the possessions you have yours. Everything belongs to God. If you call yourself a Christian, have your actions match Christ’s teachings.
He’s not trying to rob you, but help you take hold of life. And if you want to support the work of helping people grasp this truth in the hardest places, give to GTP.