102. All are yours
1 Corinthians 3:22-23 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
Christ is everything; you are Christ’s; everything is yours. If you have Christ you have it all; you are rich and full of everything good; nothing good or needful will be lacking for you.
Paul, Apollos, Peter, or any other man of God is yours. You are not divided in your loyalty to any person or ideology since Christ is all in all. But there is more: the world, or life or death belongs to you also; even the present and the future belong to you as well. This kind of pleonasm is meant to convey in graphic terms that “all” means all. Everything is included, nothing is excepted. Of course, the “everything” does not include anything that is sinful and evil and anything that is not of God. If it comes from God it is yours, and if it comes from God it is good.
If you are in Christ you are in God. Everything that is God’s belongs to you. It is all yours. In Christ, God gave it all to you; He gave it all to you to enjoy. However, it is not yours to control. God gives it all as He pleases, and what He please is good and gracious. Philippians 4:19: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” God knows what you need and He is able to supply it. He is very rich. All of this abundance is in Christ Jesus. He earned it for you.
All things are yours. God supplies it for you when you need it. We are given this kind of promise so that we will trust God above things. We can trust God’s wealth, power and ability so we know He can do it; we can trust God’s love and mercy so we know He will do it; we can trust God’s wisdom so we know He will do the right thing. God is able; God is good; God is wise. Repentance is needed on our part in order to defeat our pride, the kind of pride that thinks we know better than God what should belong to us. Repentance is needed to overcome the pride that foolishly thinks we deserve all things from God. Repentance is needed to squelch the idea that I can do it myself and get what I need by my own efforts. God’s kindness (the Gospel) is meant to lead you to repentance. Repent and believe the Gospel, which says, “All is yours.”