God Is Our Landlord
[Cristo es mi Dueno]
Text: Isaiah 5; l Cor. 3:16, 6:20
by Robert J. Young


Introduction
On a recent mission trip, I was intrigued by one of the songs we sang. The words said, "Cristo es mi Dueno, mi Rey y mi Senor." One translation, Christ is my Landlord, my King and my Lord.
God is our landlord. Christ is my landlord. What comes to your mind? This is a unique thought to me. This is not a customary way of thinking about my relationship to God.

As I was growing up, my family lived in others' houses, the Bowlus's basement, Frank and Tillie's house, then up on the hill at the top of town by the creek.
We we moved to another town, we lived in Mrs. Breitenbach's basement, then in the Bolton's basement, then we purchased a home.
All during these early years, until I was near teenhood, we were tenants, renters, not permanent. Renters are seldom permanent.
When mother married my stepfather, he was tenant farmer, although some of the property was within his family, he was farming for someone else. He was living in the house, taking only a portion of the crop. After they married, my stepfather and mother bought the 80 acres the house was on, the had some land of their own to farm and pasture, but they continued also to farm for others.

The song says in essence, "He is the landowner, we are tenants, he is the owner, we are renters."
Have you considered this thought? In Isaiah's prophecy, Israel is the vineyard. So also in the NT at times. We are the field. But we are also the workers, the tenants, the renters. The metaphors from Scripture go both ways. Both are possible and these provide some interesting possibilities for study. Here is our lesson for today.

I. The Principle: He owns everything.
He owns what we live in, or what we use, or what we farm, he owns the vineyard, the field. The house I live in is not mine. It is not the bank's or the mortgage company's, it is God's.
He also owns our personal house, our tabernacle of clay. This is not ours. Our bodies are not ours. We are not our own, we are bought with a price, 1 Cor. 6:20.
Our houses are not ours, our cars are not ours. This is an important principle.

II. The Applications

Conclusion
He owns our body, we are not our body. We are dwelling in a biological body that makes us living beings, a body similar to animate creation, enables us to live in this world, on this planet. We are not our bodies. We exist separate from our bodies, 2 Cor. 5:1ff.


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Last updated February 26, 2001.