"Everything is Yours, And You Are Christ's, and Christ is God's"

 Lately, I've been going back through and translating 1 Corinthians again for my morning devotions in addition to reading from Epictetus. This morning, I've come back to 2:21-23. Paul is explaining in the preceeding verses how one who has a reputation for the wisdom of the world among the congregation at Corinth should become a moron (literal word) so that he would actually become wise, because the wisdom of this world is nonsense to God, and he quotes, "The Owner (Lord) knows by experience the internal dialogues of the wise that they are nothing but empty space." from Psalm 94:11 (LXX, 95:11). And then he says in 21-23, "As also don't let anyone among human beings brag; because everything belongs to you, whether Paulus or Apollos or Kefa, or the cosmos or life or death, whether things present or things impending; everything belongs to you, and you belong to the Anointed, and the Anointed belongs to God."
     Have you ever stopped to think about what the word "lord" actually means in the English language, and why we use it to translate "kurios" from the Greek? Literally, it means "property owner." Think about it, the lord of a manor is the owner of the manor. The lord of a castle is the owner of the castle. The lord of a slave is the owner of that slave. Most of the time we don't really think in these terms because it's kind of become an archaic honorific with no actual meaning, kind of like "mister," which is ultimately a linguistic cognate of "master." So, when we address God as "the Lord" we are literally calling Him "the Owner," and acknowledging that He is the ultimate Owner of everything, including ourselves as He is the one who created and maintains "the everything."
     So what is Paul saying in these last three verses of chapter 2? First he says, "don't let anyone among human beings brag," and in context with immediate reference to one's personal wisdom. Why? "because everything belongs to you." Why? "you belong to the Anointed (Christ), and the Anointed belongs to God." This is kind fo a hard concept to explain without it being misunderstood, because as human beings we tend to think in purely material, fleshly, physical terms because by default we let our malfunction do our thinking and responding for us. We tend to think in terms of personal ownership, and what we do and do not possess. How can everything be mine, as Paul says? I can't just walk into a store and take what I want, that would be stealing from the store. I don't own those things until I pay for them!
     "You" are not your body. "You" are not this lump of skin, muscle, and bone. The real you is "pneuma" and "logos" not flesh. The real you is like a gamer on an MMORPG controlling his or her avatar in order to interact with the world. No matter what happens to the avatar, the gamer themselves cannot be affected or harmed unless the identify too closely and too intimately with their avatar. The real you is rooted and born from the Being of God, immortal, eternal, and perfectly safe from all harm even though constantly at odds with the false you, the ego/mind/identity, concoted by the malfunctioning flesh because of its panic induced blindness to the real you.
     Those who are submitted to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ, the Pneuma of the Logos, are not functioning from their malfunctioning flesh originated EMI. They are functioning as God originally intended, that is, it is God the Father manifesting, acting, and speaking through His Logos, Jesus Christ, who is manifesting, acting, and speaking through them. Literally, the Owner of everything, and what is born of the Owner of everything is also the inheritor of everything the Father owns. The flesh which will decay and die owns nothing any more than the avatar of an MMORPG owns anything, and is itself just data which can be lost, wiped, or just disappear like smoke on the wind.
     Put simply, the one who is functioning from the Spirit of Christ owns everything, because Christ owns everything, and He owns everything because God owns everything. Everything is available for that person's use as God wills it. There is no lack of resources available, because everything belongs to the Owner, and this translates down to those who are born of the Owner.
     So then, why do I appear to lack what I need? Are you so certain that you need it? Most of the time, it is our flesh which is responding for us, our malfunctioning survival responses, and it believes it needs things it doesn't, and pushes away things which the real you honestly needs. Furthermore, just like in an MMORPG, the only thing you truly "own" personally is your own will. Not your property, not your family members, and not even your own body, but the choices you make, and how you respond to things. Everything else is owned, really, by the company that controls the server, and they are only allowing you use of it for the time you are playing the game. In the same way, everything in creation is owned by God and we are allowed to use these things at His discretion for as long of a time as we are in these dying, malfunctioning bodies much like the child of a wealthy man is allowed to access that wealth at the father's discretion.
     Don't be the gamer who invests all he has in the stuff in the game who then loses everything when the game ends.