All things are yours.

 

All things are yours.

 

1 Corinthians 3:21: "Let no one boast about people (kauchado en anthropois), for all things are yours (gar hymon estin)."

"Kaukado en anthropois" (καυχάσθω ἐν ἀνθρώποις) means that no one should boast among people. This is because all people are spiritually dead. The only thing to boast about is Jesus Christ of the cross and resurrection. Even people in the church try to put themselves forward to others through honor, money, and power. This is what those who love the world do. Those who have fallen into a faith focused on material blessings are precisely these kinds of people.

Regarding the phrase "gar hymon estin" (γὰρ ὑμῶν ἐστιν), if translated again, it means, "All things are for you." A saint is not one who is in the world, but one who is in heaven above the world. In Ephesians 1:22-23, it states, "And He has put all things under His feet, and made Him head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all things in all things."

The church is the fullness of Him who fills all things in all things. The church is a temple that dwells within the hearts of the saints, and it appears as a union of saints. In Christ, the saint plays the role of spiritually filling all things.

 

In Hebrews 2:8, it says, "He has put all things under His feet." Since He has put all things under His feet, there should be nothing that is not subject to Him; yet now we do not see all things subject to Him." This aligns with the content of Psalm 8:5-6. God has put all things under His feet, but we, who are within all things, do not yet see it.

This is where the church is. How are the head of the church over all things and the church within all things connected? He tells us that the church must become His army in order to be united with Christ, the head of the church. We must become overcomers.

To fail to see the submission of all things today means that the church cannot become an army. Today, those who are united with Jesus Christ who died on the cross and the resurrected Jesus Christ are not seen; instead, they speak only of the blood of Jesus. A church that eats bread and drinks the cup—eating bread and drinking the cup means being united with Christ who died on the cross and being united with the resurrected Jesus Christ.

One must eat the bread, which is resurrection life, and drink the cup to become the army of Christ. Breaking the bread symbolizes the flesh being pierced by a spear during the death on the cross; eating the bread symbolizes eating the life of resurrection; pouring the cup symbolizes the blood of Jesus who died on the cross, but drinking the cup signifies drinking the living water from heaven. If one cannot believe that this is how it is, one cannot, in fact, be called a saint, nor can one be called the army of God.

 

One believes that the Lord is with us every day while failing to see the Lord, who is the head of the church above all things. One who is not united with Jesus Christ who died on the cross and Jesus Christ who resurrected becomes one who has never met Christ and has never seen Him. One who claims to have met and seen Him is committing a spiritual lawlessness.

1 Corinthians 3:22-23: "Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Since everything originated from God, we must return to God. Everything began through the angelic spirit that came from God, and Paul, Apollos, and Cephas strive to preach the Word so that they may repent and turn back. There will be those who turn to life and those who do not, those who turn now and those who will turn in the future, but all of them exist for the sake of you, the saints. Therefore, Paul gives them a great sense of mission.

Establishing the Kingdom of God within the hearts of the saints becomes the very mission given to them. The meaning of "saint" is a holy people. The word "holy" is a translation of the Hebrew "kadosh" and the Greek "hagios." In the Bible, holiness means "setting apart a special person or thing for sacred use." Therefore, the objects used in the tabernacle to serve God were called "holy objects," and the priesthood, which offered sacrifices to God on behalf of people, was called "holy office."

 

God said the following to Moses: Exodus 19:5-6, "The whole world belongs to me, and if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be my people among all nations, and you will be a kingdom of priests to me and a holy people."

Through the covenant, God set Israel apart from all the nations of the world and made them His own people. They were chosen as a kingdom of priests to lead the nations of the world to God, and thus were called a holy people set apart for a divine purpose.

However, after Jesus came, this covenant was extended not only to Israel but to all nations. This is because God [said], "If anyone is in Jesus Christ, his This is because He promised to make them His people and His children.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Calling those in Christ a holy people, that is, saints, is because they are those who have repented and died with Jesus, who died on the cross.

Baptism is a ritual of confessing that one is dead. In Romans 6:4, it says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.”

In particular, because God has sent the Holy Spirit into those who are born again, those who have been baptized become holy temples possessing the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God does not hesitate to call them His people. In this sense, those who are born again are called "saints," that is, a holy multitude (a set-apart multitude).