You are not for sale

Trust Maanda
Looking at the Unseen
1 PETER 2:9-11
[9] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light
[10] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
[11] Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Every believer is a stranger and a pilgrim as far as the world is concerned. He or she has no joy pleasures that the world offers.
A Christian is a peculiar person. He or she belongs to a royal priesthood. They belong to a chosen generation. They are pilgrims and passers-by. They are children of Light. Although they are in the world, they are not of the world. They act differently.
I read a story that some time ago, in America they used to buy and sell slaves just like you do when you sell cars on the market. Buyers would come by, and buy these people and sell them from one place to another. And one day a slave buyer came by, and these slaves were very disheartened because they were away from their home.
The slave masters would have to whip them with whips to make them work. The slaves were demoralised because they would never go back to see their loved ones anymore; they were slaves. And they were so discouraged.
But one day when a certain buyer came by a great plantation, he noticed one young man. Although this young man was a slave, you didn’t have to whip him. His chest was out; his chin was out. He was motivated. He walked right along with a smile on his face. He did every bit of work that needed to be done.
The buyer said to the slave owner: “I want to buy that slave.”
But the owner said: “He is not for sale.”
“Well, what makes him so much different from the others. Perhaps he is the boss of the others?”
The slave owner said: “No, he’s just a slave.”
“Maybe you feed him better than you do the others and that is what makes him act like that.”
“No, he eats out in the galley with the rest of them.”
“Well, what makes him so much different from the rest of them?”
And the owner said: “I wondered that myself for a long time, but came to find out that over in the homeland, in Africa, where they come from, his father is the king of the tribe. And though he is an alien, and he is away from his father, and he is away from his tribe, and loved ones, he conducts himself as a king’s son. He knows that he is an alien, but he is the son of a king.”
How should we conduct ourselves? We are sons and daughters of a King, not a king, but the King: Jesus Christ the Son of the living God Who is the King of kings.
If man in slavery could know that his father was the king of a tribe, what kind of a conduct ought a man or a woman, that knows that God’s our King, though we are an alien walking here in this land?
Pilgrims and strangers professing we are Abraham’s Seed, we are looking for a City whose Builder and Maker is God, which will come someday.
What ought our conduct be? Not like the world, but we should act like sons and daughters of God, like King’s children, not like slaves of fashions, and slaves of passion, and slaves of pride. And we should be sons and daughters of God, and act like it, and conduct ourselves that way, let our conversations, and everything, be seasoned with God’s Spirit.
We may go through difficult times. We may fall sick, we may lack, but we should always be happy. We should always be positive and believe that our father has a plan for us. We are not for sale. Let others be discouraged. Let others be demoralised. Let others be forlorn and hopeless. But let us always raise our heads and have our chests out. We are sons and daughters of the King. Our Father is not a king of an African or any other earthly kingdom. He is the King of the universe. He is the King of Kings, Lord of lords. He owns everything.
We are not for sale to drugs and prostitution. We are not for sale to all forms of evil. We are not for sale to evil spirits. Refuse to be called a slave.
Conduct yourself as a son of the King.
Trust Maanda is a Gospel preacher and transformational speaker. He writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on +263772432646