Introduction

In the Kings James Version of the Bible, 1 Timothy 4:6 reads: "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." This passage unmistakably instructs the gospel preacher to "put the brethren in remembrance." The context itself will declare the things of which the apostle spoke. There is, nevertheless, the perpetual obligation to remind brethren of many things which pertain to Christian living. It is not that brethren are ignorant of the things which we are about to speak, but they can profit by being reminded of them (cf. 2 Peter 1:12-13).

We Are Not Our Own

"...And ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). The KJV reads, "...Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Without explaining why the ASV translators did not retain the exact verbiage as did the KJV, suffice it to say that we do belong to God both body and soul. This is the case because we were bought with a price. And exactly what was this price? Peter answers: "Knowing ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). There are a multitude of words in the Greek New Testament which describe redemption as effected by Christ. Of them Barclay says, (1) They all imply that man was in captivity, in slavery, in subjection to an alien power. There was something which had man in its grip. (2) They all imply that by no conceivable means could man have effected his own liberation or rescue. He was helpless in the grip of a power and a situation which he could not mend and from which he could not break away. (3) His liberation was effected by the coming of Jesus Christ who paid the price which was necessary to achieve it. Concerning redemption, other scholars say, "For the Jews the picture of redemption would be God's deliverance from Egypt. For the Gentiles it would be the picture of a slave whose freedom was purchased with a price."

What, then, does all this mean? It means that we cannot live for ourselves; we have to live for Him who gave His life for us. We belong to Christ! Peter says, "That ye no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God" (1 Peter 4:2).

Saved To Serve

It would stagger the average person's imagination to know how many times the words servant, servants, serve, service, and serving are used in both the Old and New Testaments. Well, the words are actually used hundreds of times. When our Lord said to Satan, "...Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10), He is emphatically saying that (1) the only Being we are to worship is God Himself; and that (2) the only Being we are to serve is God Himself. Serving God, however, involves a wide range of activities such as (1) caring for the widows and orphans; (2) doing good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith; (3) visiting the sick, and (4) helping one another (cf. James 1:27; Gal. 6:10; Matt. 25:35-40; Galatians 5:13).

Conclusion

All of us know things that we cannot always remember and the need to have our "memory" stimulated constantly exists. Good brethren always make themselves available to handle such responsibilities as mentioned above. The two most important things in this world are to worship God and serve Him.

Noah Hackworth
Visalia, California