Not Your Own: Who Really Owns Your Life? - 1 Corinthians 6

Anchor Truth

• 1 Corinthians 6:20
• "You were bought at a price... honor God with your body"
• Core theme: Ownership, not just behavior

Section 1: Lawsuits Among Believers (6:1-8)

• Problem: Believers taking disputes to worldly courts
• Key phrase: "Do you dare..." (v.1)
• Identity gap: destined to judge the world, yet cannot handle small matters
• Kingdom vs. culture approach to conflict
• Losing witness even when winning the case
• Verse focus:
  • v.2-3: judging the world and angels
  • v.7: already defeated, why not be wronged?

Application Steps:

• Evaluate how you handle conflict
• Choose righteousness over being right
• Prioritize witness over personal victory
• Seek reconciliation over retaliation

Section 2: Identity and Inheritance (6:9-11)

• Warning: "Do not be deceived"
• Lifestyle vs. struggle distinction
• List of unrighteous behaviors (v.9-10)
• Transformation truth:
  • "Such WERE some of you" (v.11)
  • Washed, sanctified, justified

Application Steps:

• Identify areas of normalized sin
• Reject false identity rooted in past behavior
• Stop defending what God calls sin
• Stop carrying shame for what God has cleansed
• Live from new identity, not old patterns

Section 3: Freedom vs. Mastery (6:12)

• Cultural slogan: "I have the right to do anything"
• Two filters:
  • Is it beneficial?
  • Does it master you?
• Freedom redefined: not autonomy, but alignment
• Warning: permissible does not equal profitable

Application Steps:

• Stop asking "Can I?" start asking "Should I?"
• Identify what is shaping and discipling you
• Break agreement with anything controlling you
• Remove what is not spiritually beneficial
• Refuse to be mastered by anything but Christ

Section 4: The Body and Sexual Integrity (6:13-18)

• Cultural lie: "It is just physical"
• Truth: the body is for the Lord
• Resurrection affirms the value of the body (v.14)
• Union language:
  • Members of Christ (v.15)
  • One flesh (v.16)
  • One with the Lord (v.17)
• Command: "Flee" sexual immorality (v.18)

Application Steps:

• Reject the "just physical" mindset
• Recognize the spiritual weight of physical actions
• Evaluate what you are joining yourself to
• Run, do not manage, sexual temptation
• Address past attachments and patterns
• Pursue wholeness, not just restraint

Section 5: The Temple and the Price (6:19-20)

• Identity: your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
• God dwells within, not visits occasionally
• Statement: "You are not your own"
• Redemption language: "bought at a price"
• Response: honor God with your body

Application Steps:

• See yourself as God’s dwelling place
• Surrender personal ownership
• Align daily habits with God’s presence
• Treat your body as sacred, not common
• Live as a steward, not an owner

Closing Challenge

• Review the progression:
  • Conflict -> Identity -> Freedom -> Body -> Ownership
• Central question: Who owns your life?

Final Application Steps:

• Identify areas still under personal control
• Stop negotiating with sin
• Shift from independence to surrender
• Move from "what can I do?" to "what honors God?"
• Live fully aligned with being bought by Christ

Final Statement

• You are not your own
• You were bought at a price
• Live like it