For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:7-8 NKJV)
We belong to the Lord because we are His Creations after His image. He owns us. We belong to the Lord because He bought us by His precious blood the day He gave His life on the cross. We belong to the Lord because He called us to be members of His Body – the Church. We belong to the Lord because He ordained us to be kings and priests in His Kingdom. We are His disciples, His servants, His friends, His children, His brothers and sisters, His Army, His household, and many more. Since we belong to the Lord, we do not live for ourselves anymore. We do not live to please the flesh, but we use our body to please God. Our body is now the Temple of His Holy Spirit. We are to keep it holy. We are to preserve the purity of our souls. Though our outer self is gradually dying, we have this great hope that Jesus, upon His return, will change our dead and decaying bodies into bodies that will not die or decay. The bodies we now have are weak and can die, but they will be changed into bodies that are eternal. Think of this deeply: if we serve God, we will die at the end. If we do not serve God, of course, death will still come. In that case, to serve or not to serve God, we will die eventually. However, the big difference is if we do not serve God while we live, we die in the flesh and die in the spirit. Serve God while we live and we die and then live again forever. Choose to serve God and be alive again.
