Paid in Full

Date: Monday, October 5, 2026

Readings: 1 Corinthians 6 | Psalm 80

In 1846, Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist and former slave, was a celebrity in Britain, but legally he was still someone’s property. His admirers there raised roughly 150 pounds and paid his former owner for his freedom. Douglass had mixed feelings about the transaction, since no person should have a price tag. But the result was unambiguous: after the money changed hands, no one could lawfully claim him again.

The Corinthians knew slave markets well, which gives Paul’s words special force: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Notice the order. Paul is not handing out a list of rules to earn belonging; he is reminding believers that belonging has already been purchased. The price was the blood of Christ, and the redeemed owe their new way of living to a great love, not a nagging fear.

That matters because this chapter doesn’t flinch about Corinth’s mess: lawsuits among believers, casual sexual practices, and the idea that the body doesn’t matter. Paul answers that the body does matter, because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And then comes the line that every recovering person needs to hear: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Past tense. You are not defined by what you were. You were bought, and you are home.

Devotional Prompts:

• How would your daily choices change if you lived as someone already “bought at a price” rather than trying to earn acceptance?
• What does it mean to honor God with your body in a culture that treats the body as a project or a product?

Prayer: Redeeming God, You paid for us with the life of Your Son, and we are not our own. Wash away the shame we still carry and teach us to live as those who are free. Make our bodies and our days a living temple for Your Spirit. Amen.