“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19-20, NIV).
When I was in high school my cousin couldn’t afford much of a car, so he bought a 1953 Chevy pick-up truck for $250. It was close to 20 years old at the time. It was rough. It was rusty. It was embarrassing. But it was his and it got him where he needed to go.
One time when he came driving up to get me, I notice both of the front fenders were missing. Come to find out, he had removed them, sanded them, primed them, and painted then. He couldn’t afford a newer car, but he had learned every nuance about his truck, and so he started to put a little bit of money and a lot of work into it over time.
After a few years, he had this truck in mint condition. It was beautiful! He never planned for it to turn out that way, but he wanted to be a good steward of what he could afford, so he just kept investing a lot of sweat and lot of love into what he had.
Soon, he had offers for it from $10,000 to $20,000. Yes, it was THAT GOOD! What was once the only transportation he could afford was now his baby and he was proud to show it off. Needless to say, he STILL HAS this truck!
This scenario is very similar to how we should treat the people we are dating or the people we are married to. We are to be stewards of those relationships with which we are entrusted. This is no trivial thing!
If we take a relationship too quickly, it’s like putting the foot on the gas pedal before the brakes have been installed – it’s likely to crash and burn! Often times we want to accelerate a relationship before we really get to know one another or even know where we’re going.
Like my cousin’s truck, if we want our dating relationship or our marriage to last, then we’ve got to invest in it. We have to care for it. We have to respect it. We have to work on it. And, most important, we have to love the other sacrificially.
That’s how Jesus loves us – sacrificially. He invested everything in us! It should come as no surprise, then, that we should look at the person we choose to date or to marry as a reflection of the love that God shows us! If one is not ready to do this, then one better put on the brakes before going too far down the road only to discover that the brakes were never installed!
God has a way for us to honor Him FIRST in our dating and marriages. If we love each other His way, then He will bless these unions beyond compare! But please, do NOT refer to your significant other as “a TRUCK with a few dents, but still looks good”! I’m just sayin’.
HONOR GOD FIRST in ALL our undertakings and He will bless the rest.
David McCall
Executive Pastor
