Rent’s Due!
Rory Vaden wrote, "Success is never owned, it is rented and the rent is due everyday." Because of this "rent's due" is a popular saying in the fitness world. Countless influencers say this phrase constantly. This phrase is even on shirts worn by weightlifters in many gyms around the nation. Why does this statement mean so much for those individuals? I would assume that it is a reminder of the commitment they had made to a consistent program of physical activity. Every month your rent or mortgage payment is due, and every month the bank or landlord will be sure to remind you. Physical fitness requires consistent commitment and reminders to put the work in and pay the required installment. How can the New Testament Christian learn from this, and is there any application we can make from the phrase, "Rent's Due?"
We Are Not Our Own
The concept of rent acknowledges that the renter does not own the property they are living in. Sure, they eat and sleep there, but simply eating and sleeping does not equate to ownership of the area in which you do those things. We could stay at the Hilton family of hotels often and sleep in a rented bed and eat the provided breakfast in the morning, but that does not mean I have become a member of the Hilton family. My friend, we need to recognize that just because we are eating and sleeping in this world does not mean we own our own life.
The Spirit writes, "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own" (1 Cor 6:19). Why, because look at the language we have already looked at. We are members of Christ. My body belongs to Christ, I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit defines what our bodies do. Leading up to this verse in 1 Corinthians 6, He had just said flee from fornication, because the child of God is not a temple that is essentially a brothel but it is different. For the Corinthians, this was a significant contrast to practices to which some were converted. Corinth was the site of the temple of Aphrodite, a "goddess." This temple is historically known as a site of temple prostitution. The former frequenters of such idolatry needed to turn from fornication and recognize their bodies no longer belonged to them, but that they belonged to Christ, and the Holy Spirit directed the use of that body. When we turn to Christ, we understand that all we do with our bodies, minds, etc is subject to the directing of God's Word.
We Are Bought With a Price
Have you considered that there is a price on your life? The Spirit reminds us in the same passage, "for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Cor 6:20). We are no longer our own because we have been bought, we have been redeemed. Jesus is the ransom for all (cf. 1 Tim 2:5-6). Jesus' death atoned for the sins of men. It is written, "My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" ( 1 John 2:1-2). Part of recognizing our worth is recognizing the cost that was paid by Jesus. You were worth the price of the blood of Christ, if it were not so, God would not have done it.
How would we live if we kept this idea of being bought with a price in our minds? How would we treat one another differently knowing that every person who was ever born or will ever be born is valuable to God? How we live matters, and believe it or not, others are watching how we live. Your influence reaches and it can either bring people to the Lord or it can drive them away. When we are cognizant of the price of our souls we are forced to think and live differently.
We Are Commanded to Bear Fruit Consistently
The last clause of 1 Cor 6:20, states “glorify God therefore in your body.” If you understand you are not your own, and you were bought with a price how do you respond? You bear fruit commensurate with the change. Jesus said,
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
(John 15:5-6)
We are connected to Christ and by that connection we must bear fruit. All that is good flows from God. We, by our connection, must produce good fruit that glorifies our Father and blesses others. Jesus explained that it was not a small amount of fruit that was produced by a man abiding in Him, but rather much fruit. Elsewhere the Spirit named those fruits that correspond with the life in Christ. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).
Rent's due every day in 2025 and beyond. We are here for a few mere years, an eternal soul housed in a temporal tabernacle. How can we produce love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. in our homes, work, and congregations? If you want to get stronger in the gym it takes a realization that rent is due; this is achieved through progressive overload, protein prioritization, sleep, and hydration. If you want to get financially fit you must write a budget, live within your means, etc. All fitness takes self-control. If we want a sound faith, it requires a recognition that we are the Lord's, we are blood-bought. On this earth we live in tabernacles, therefore glorify God in your body. Rent's due!
Grace and Peace,
R.D. Beavers
