Not Mastered

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me,

but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

This is a really great word for us in this age of consumption and entitlement. We’re not in the habit of resisting or taming our appetites. But Paul tells us here that we are not to allow ourselves to be controlled by anything other than Jesus.

Paul was discussing the freedom we have in Christ—freedom from all types of religious restrictions. But our freedom doesn’t give us permission to run rampant over others, or to let our own appetites run rampant over us.

Self-discipline, it seems, is a critical component of personal freedom. If you’re able to discipline your appetites, then you’re free. But to the degree that your appetites own you, you are a slave to them.

And like I said earlier, that’s a really great word for us today. I’ve certainly warred with a few of my own unruly appetites. I know firsthand the tyranny that comes from being enslaved to my flesh.

So what about you? Are you mastered by anything: the need to spend money, or just have more of it? Eating and certain types of food? Exercise or adrenaline? Alcohol and/or drugs? Sex, or sex related forms of entertainment?

The list could go on and on.

But the point here is that as followers of Jesus we get to (and want to) have only one master, and it isn’t any thing. We get to be mastered by our loving Lord Jesus. And anything or anyone that also masters us is an enemy of the Jesus in us.

Today, enjoy the rich freedom you have in Christ. Enjoy it by not being mastered by anything other than the one you died to make you free.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Romans 6:12-13

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