"Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ's, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he [is] Christ's, even so we [are] Christ's." (2 Cor 10:7)
If you belong to Christ, know that you are individually owned. “He is Christ’s.” Twice in his previous letter, Paul reminds the Corinthians of being “bought at a price” and with that purchase we are free to glorify God and no longer be slaves. The chains are gone!
If you belong to Christ, know that you are corporately owned. "We are Christ’s.”
Have you ever visited a model home? The Church is a kind of model home, a preview house of what the rule of Christ should look like, a sample of what will be. Our doors should be open to invite future residents to Christ. We are not isolated survivalists who hoard for the apocalypse of the end times, but a local version of the new city within the old city.
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ‘ nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." (Lk 17:20-21).
The land is already His, so in this model home we live a lifestyle as citizens of the heavenly city that one day will come. We do not abandon our jobs or desert the city that is; rather, we are to 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city' to which God called us in exile (Jer. 29:7). Our business should be that the Church becomes as large as the development tracts.
Jesus is our owner, which underscores His Divine Position (from John’s Gospel):
- “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.”(3:35)
- “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (16:15)
- “and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.” (17:10)
