2001-02-23 - Selling Out

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

An atheist recently tried to sell his soul on eBay. Adam Burtle from Seattle put his soul up for auction on the trading website. The 20-year-old received bids ranging from $6.66 from an ex-girlfriend to a top bid of $400. The sale listing has since been removed from the site, because according to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove, "You have to have a piece of merchandise that a seller can deliver to a buyer."

An interesting and sad story, yes, but Mr. Burtle was very misguided. The soul is a precious thing. And as our verse above says the souls of all belong to God. So unfortunately for Mr. Burtle, the soul he tried to sell on eBay was never his to sell anyway.

A popular question to ask someone is, "If your house were on fire and you could only grab one thing, what would it be?" People, of course, have various answers; the cat, a Bible, picture album, or some precious momento from the past. However, the perfect response to that question seems to be, "myself." For our souls dwell with us, and our souls are our most precious possessions. "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26

Our souls are able to have faith and perseverance (Hebrews 10:39). They are also able to love God (Luke 10:27). However, Micah 6:7 tells us something else about the soul. It is able to sin. This is an interesting aspect of the soul. Now, there is likely to be a debate about this verse, as to whether the soul of a Christian can sin, of if this verse has in mind the state of a person before faith in Christ. I would rather not go there. I'm not sure it is a helpful discussion, but rather mere speculation -- because Scripture does not clearly answer the question.

Rather, I would like to highlight the importance of care for our souls. 1 Peter 1:22 helps us learn how to care for our souls. "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart." Our souls somehow become purified through obedience to the truth. To do this we must know what truth is, and therefore we need to pray to the Lord for wisdom, and to become students of the Scripture, where God has revealed His truth.

Our souls will always be with us. In fact, Revelation 20:4 tells us that some souls will actually reign with Christ. Knowing that, how can we not seek to care for our souls through obedience and growth in grace? It should be our goal to protect and cherish our most precious possession. The old saying, "you can't take it with you," is not true when we speak of the soul. It is the one thing that is going with us. Let us therefore, take care of our souls by heeding the Bible's advice to us, "in obedience to truth."

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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