The Lutheran Hour
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"Bought with A Price"
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Text: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
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Grace, and mercy, and peace be to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus, who paid an eternal price for our sins, so that we could live eternal lives with Him and with one another. Amen!
What is a person worth? What are you worth? If you got that question at a party, some of you might answer by adding up your assets and subtracting your liabilities, but is that all a person is worth?
Others might venture an answer by recounting the number of Facebook friends that they have or the notoriety that they enjoy in this world. Maybe you are the person who everyone must have at the party for it to be a success. But does such value last?
What are you worth?
Increasingly, we live in a world that doesn’t know how to answer this question. We live in a sinful, fickle world where sinful human beings ultimately let not only themselves down, but others down as well.
It’s a world today where divorce is becoming a normal occurrence and reoccurring remarriages a common thing, where our children are often caught in the crossfire struggling with a deep confusion of their personal worth or a callous disregard for it all.
Or think about what’s happening in our hyper-sexualized culture, where teens and young adults are taught to just express or publically emote their sexuality without worry for commitments or consequences. Deep down, the pains of manipulated intimacy and broken relationships leave women and men jaded and confused, not empowered and blessed.
Self worth is hard in today’s confused world, where sin is glorified and virtue is mocked; it’s hard, in a world that loves to point out our flaws to drive us to our knees; it’s hard, in a world where feelings of worthlessness abound and the enduring price to be paid for worthwhile lives seems forever out of reach.
As St. Paul the Apostle says, “Hear this, you are precious to God, you have been bought with a price!”
Our text today, thankfully, says that your self worth, your value as a human being is not rooted in the fickleness of one’s self-image, or even in your personal self-confidence or temporal success, thankfully, it’s not even about what some other sinful individual says or thinks about you either. Paul says, if you want to know what you’re real value is, where your true value lies, if you want to know a lasting source of personal confidence and strength that engenders courage to live a meaningful, even purposeful life in this crazy, confused world. Well, it’s to be found in your restored relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Our lives are precious to God, so much so that He sent His Son to die for us so that we might live. For a Christian, one’s relationship with Jesus is the essence of our worth, our esteem. We have been bought with a price, to live lives of eternal worth in Him for others.
Like Paul says, “You were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body!”
It seems that people have a real problem with self-worth in our world today. I know that some of you listening today might still want to puff your chest out and say, “No, you must be talking about someone else, not me.” Well, I wish it were true. Deep down inside, even the most successful among us, seems to always come to a point of asking, “Is this it? Is this what life is all about? Is my value as a person merely in what I can produce or what I can give to somebody else?”
I was shocked recently to hear about what actress Reese Witherspoon had to say about herself in a recent magazine article. She is the actress who starred in one of our family’s favorite movies, “Legally Blonde.” Yes, I liked it too, not just because my wife and daughter thought it was funny and cute. Anyway, in this movie, Ms. Witherspoon always had a “big smile, always seemed to be ready to take on the world, nothing seemed to get her down.” Now, I realize how actors appear on screen is quite often different from their real lives, but I wasn’t prepared to hear such a drastic difference in her own words. Here’s what she had to say: “I don’t watch any movie I’m in. It’s horrifying. I’ll just focus on something stupid like, “I hate my laugh. Why did I smile?” Sometimes I look at myself and think, “Dude, I’ve got the biggest, goofiest smile on earth.”
When she really wants to feel bad, she’ll Google herself. She says, “Only in very dark moments, moments of pure self-loathing, do I type my name into Google. You never read anything positive; you always go straight to where they say something nasty about you. You’re fat, you’re ugly, you’re tired, you’re worthless, you don’t have a career anymore. It’s just an affirmation of every horrible feeling about yourself. ”
Now I don’t know much about her personal life, but it was heartbreaking to hear how someone so beautiful, so successful and admired, could so struggle with a basic sense of who she is. I wish I could say that her struggle was unique. Unfortunately, such issues are common among us as human beings. Such struggles exist below the surface of the successful, the wealthy, and the so called “popular people” as well as those who outwardly appear less advantaged.
So, if you are struggling today with a sense of worthlessness, no matter what your accomplishments; if you feel, deep down, that you aren’t worthy of love, and you keep that struggle hidden deep within so that no one will see; if you are brutally aware of the power of sin and guilt in your life, know this, trust this, because of Jesus, you have eternal value with God, you are precious to Him. Your life has literally been bought back by Christ. All of your inadequacies, sins, and fears, those voices that are saying inside, “We know who you are, and no one can love a person like you,” All of that has been laid on Jesus Christ, put to death, buried in His grave, so that His resurrection life and eternal worth might be yours as a gift by faith.
Because of Jesus, you are precious to God. Paul says, “A Price was paid for your forgiveness, your life and salvation.” And that price is the key to beginning to come grips with who you are and who you can be in Him.
When Jesus appeared to the disciples just after his resurrection from the dead, He came to one of them called Thomas and showed Him the nail marks in His hands and feet. It was as if He were saying, “Look Thomas, I’m not only telling you that you are precious to me, I’ve paid the price to make it so.”
Those nail-pierced hands tell us the same thing too. Leslie Flynn told a story that illustrates this truth.
An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when the house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt that they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around that man’s neck and he held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue.
When it comes to who you are….trust Jesus to settle the issue with you. Christianity is not even a religious answer to the question “what are you worth?” It is not another “thing you must do to prove your value so that others might love you or care for you.” No, Christianity is the proclamation that God has acted on behalf of a confused, rebellious, sinful world. He has made a way for those deep concerns of worth, those deep doubts of purpose to be answered with an unshakeable confidence in God’s work on your behalf. No other religion on the face of the earth speaks this way!
When He stretched out His hands to die on the cross, He did that for the world, but He did that for you. You have been bought with a price. Your salvation, your forgiveness, your life, your freedom by faith has been paid for by the very blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! Your sin, your struggle became His, so that His life, His worth, and His salvation could be yours!
Thank God. You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body!
Your faith relationship with Christ, then, gives you an eternal, unshakeable sense of who you are because you know whose you are in all things, a believer belongs to one’s Savior, Jesus. Paul says, “You are Christ’s man, you are Christ’s woman; you belong to Him. But this text isn’t just about knowing who you are and who you can be. This text is about how to put that faith to work in your lives.
By the power of His Spirit, You don’t just ‘belong to Him, you want to be His.” You want to follow His lead, to trust His Word, to live life as He would live it for the sake of others. As St. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 6:19 “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit….” Because you are His own all of His resources, His power, His strength are yours as you put your life to worthwhile use in Him for others.
You want to live with Him, yes, but you also want to live for Him and by Him for others, worthwhile lives lived for others in His Name; that’s who you are in Jesus Christ!
By the power of the Holy Spirit then, a Christian gets to live as Christ’s people, in His victory! Faith in Him, calls you to refuse to let any situation, any event, deter you from the continual receiving of the blessings of Jesus in your lives. Through hearing God’s Word and receiving His baptism, sharing in His supper, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, with a worth paid for by Christ Himself!
Because you are the Lord’s, because you are precious to God, you don’t have to use your bodies as “discardable trash” to win the love of another. You can start living today as valued people of God who value commitment in relationships, modesty in sexuality, and service as the key to love.
Because you are the Lord’s, you want to resist this world’s me-first philosophy in all of its incarnations. These last few months we’ve seen students and young people marching against Wall Street. They said they were against greed. Who isn’t? But when asked what they were for, they were for “free education, free health care, free housing, universal jobs, of course jobs that they wanted to do.” Where have we heard this before? “Free love, free sex, turn on, tune out… we’ve been paying the price of broken homes, debilitating diseases and shattered dreams ever since. No, reject this world’s philosophy of living life on your terms. You were bought with a price; you’re more valuable than that!
But being Christ’s people is more than striving for faithfulness, it’s living life in His victory, faithful to Christ for the sake of others, even willing to pay the price needed for others to know of His love, of His worth for them!
Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic priest, who was put in a Nazi concentration camp for his faith. On May 28, 1941, he was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. During his time there, he would, because of Christ, share his meager rations of food with those around him who were hungry.
Despite the evil in the camp perpetrated against the inmates, Kolbe pleaded with the prisoners to forgive their persecutors and overcome evil with good, in Christ.
A Protestant doctor who treated the patients in Kolbe’s block said that Kolbe would not let himself be treated before any other prisoners in that block.
He sacrificed himself for the others. The doctor said about Kolbe: “From my observations, the virtue in the Servant of God were no momentary impulse such as are often found in men, they sprang from a habitual practice, deeply woven into his personality.”
One of Kolbe’s sayings to believers in the camp was, “I demand you be saints and great saints. It isn’t a luxury and it isn’t difficult.”
One day a man in Kolbe’s block escaped. All of the men from that block were brought into the hot sun and made to stand there all day with no food or drink.
At the end of the day, the man that had escaped was not found and so Fritsch, the Nazi commandant told the prisoners that ten men would be selected to die in the starvation cell in the place of the one that had escaped.
One man, a polish sergeant (Francis Gajowniczek) was one of those selected. He begged to be spared because he was worried that his family would not be able to survive without him.
As he was pleading for his life, Kolbe silently stepped forward and stood before the commandant.
The commandant snidely asked, “What does this Polish pig want?”
Kolbe pointed to the polish sergeant and said, “I am a Catholic priest and also from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children.”
The commandant stood silent for a moment, in disbelief.
And then he allowed the sergeant to go back to his place in the ranks and Kolbe took his place in the starvation bunker.
Each day the guards removed the bodies of those who had died.
However instead of the usual sounds of screaming, all they could hear was the sounds of Kolbe and the others in the bunker singing hymns and praying.
When Kolbe couldn’t speak any longer due to hunger and lack of energy, he whispered his prayers.
After two weeks, the cell had to be cleared out for more prisoners. Four prisoners were left and Kolbe was one of them. The guards finished the job, injecting each with a lethal injection and on August 14, 1941, Kolbe paid the ultimate price for the life of another.
Francis Gajowniczek, the one for whom Kolbe died, not only survived Aushwitz, enduring it for 5 years, five months, and 9 days, he lived to 95 years of age. Now how do you suppose that he lived the rest of his life? Well, he lived it with a joy for the one who gave his life back to him. He never tired of telling the story of the man who made the rest of his life possible, and the Lord Jesus who made such reflections of His love shine even in the darkest of places.
Christians put their bodies, minds, and spirits to work to honor the One who has made their new life possible. We’re precious to Him and, in Christ, we know it. That sense of ourselves gives us wisdom and power to not only honor God with our bodies, but to put them to use in loving others in His Name.
We Christians have the same struggles as others, we have the same temptations and doubts, but the fact that God Himself paid the price for our life and salvation, it not only helps us with our own self-doubts, it gives us confidence in Christ to deal with our momentary failures, our temporal weaknesses and struggles to not let anything get in the way of our living life in Him for others.
So, live in His victory, share His bought-and-paid-for love with others. Freedom is never free, love is something to be committed to, served into another’s life. Receive it as a gift, paid for by Christ, and share it with others as one willing to endure the cost.Each day is a precious day as God’s precious people loving those who are precious to Him.
Today, Paul has “breaking news for you and me.” He says to each one of us, “Hear this!” In Christ, you and I have “eternal worth, a plan for our lives that extends into eternity.” Trust Him. You are precious to God; He sent His Son to die for you so that you might live. Don’t let anything or anyone in this world tell you otherwise. And in the power of His Spirit, with a sense of His worth for you, live worthwhile lives in Him for others.Paul says again, “You were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body!”
So, whatever life is, whatever challenges you might yet face, never forget that you are dear to God, bought with a price, empowered to live in His victory in service to others.Precious to God, of eternal worth, leading worthwhile lives in Christ, believe it.
Amen.LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for January 15, 2012
Topic: Should We Stay in Separate Hotel Rooms?ANNOUNCER: And we are back once again with Pastor Gregory Seltz. I’m Mark Eischer. This question comes to us from a listener who wants to know what we think of this situation. He’s a widower. He’s been seeing a very special lady, who is also widowed. They’re not married, but they’d like to go off on a trip together. Question: should they get separate hotel rooms or would it be okay for them to stay in the same room because of the cost?
SELTZ: Wow. First of all, Mark, call me old-fashioned, but I am so glad that someone is even asking such a question today. Because of our disrespect for marriage out there and the common, casual infidelity in relationships in our culture, most people wouldn’t even think such a question was important to ask.
ANNOUNCER: It certainly seems to buck the trend, doesn’t it?
SELTZ: Yeah, good point. But, the Christian faith and life due tend to do that don’t they?
ANNOUNCER: They certainly do.
SELTZ: Now, I noticed that the last statement was about cost. These kind of questions tend to come up more in tough economic times as well. But, it’s important to note that doing the “right thing” isn’t about cost, it’s about being faithful to God and to each other.
ANNOUNCER: And what does the Bible say that might help our listener’s question?
SELTZ: First of all, it doesn’t matter what our age, relationships are to be entered into and honored according to God’s Word. Things like living together or sleeping together, aren’t part of an honorable Christian life, whether one is young or old. In fact, we who are older need to lead by example for the sake of those who are younger.
ANNOUNCER: Okay, but we’re not talking here about them living together, I mean, this is a short-term thing, one or two nights. Doesn’t that make a difference?
SELTZ: That’s a good point, and I also want to add that I’m assuming that our couple would do the right thing by each other, you know, be faithful to God, to be chaste, no matter what. But there is another aspect to this question, beyond merely “doing what is right.”
ANNOUNCER: And what’s that?
SELTZ: The other issue is “what kind of witness” will they be to others? The Bible does tell us “to abstain from an appearance of evil,” not just to be chaste.
ANNOUNCER: So, in other words, the way we conduct our relationships could be a testimony to our faith?
SELTZ: Absolutely, in fact, how we conduct ourselves with those we love, very often this is our clearest testimony to others about the fact that we are Jesus’ disciples.
And putting ourselves in situations that would contradict the way a disciple should live can actually muddle our witness to those who most need to hear it.ANNOUNCER: But, what if the couple explained to their kids, before this, that they were going to stay in the same room, but everything is going to be on the up and up. Trust us.
SELTZ: Well, that would helpful, that’s for sure. In fact, those who know the couple, one should always “put the best construction” on any situation and surely not gossip about what they do or do not know. But, there is another perspective to consider here. What about others, especially non-believers, who witness the couple? Their actions, as an unmarried couple sharing the same room, would look no different than anyone else in our culture today, and that could be a problem. Now, purchasing two hotel rooms, or even one hotel room with two bedrooms….all these things would give a clear witness that the couple tried to live their lives by a different standard, one that honors each other as they honor the Lord.
ANNOUNCER: Wow, I never thought this would get so complicated.
SELTZ: Well, it’s not really complicated as to how they should treat each other. It does become more complicated in how our “works” are being viewed or received by others. Remember, God doesn’t need our good works, “we’re saved by grace,” but our neighbor, especially our non-believing ones; they need our “good works.” So they can see the unique love of God that motivates us to live life differently. So our witness in these type of issues might seem trivial when they’re really not.
ANNOUNCER: Sometimes doing what is right for the sake of others can be costly.
SELTZ: That’s right, but it is always good to remember the “inconveniences” that Christ willingly suffered so that we too might know His grace. So, I’m confident that our listener will consider all the issues involved here and do what is faithful to the Lord and what is right for them, but may his concern both teach and motivate us toward such a loving witness for others too!
ANNOUNCER: It is great to hear of people trying to do right by others, to be faithful, and not merely trying to do what is right, but also to be witnesses of Christ’s love to others.
SELTZ: Absolutely!
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Seltz, this has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Blest the Children of Our God” by Joseph Humphreys & Johann Ebeling (recording © 2012 Lutheran Hour Ministries)
“God of Grace and God of Glory” by Harry E. Fosdick & John Hughes, arr. Ralph C. Schultz. From Hymns for All Saints: Psalms, Hymns, Spiritual Songs (© 2011 Concordia Publishing House)
“Take My Life and Let It Be” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Herr Christ, der einge Gottes Sohn” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark & John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)