Not My Own

“ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.” — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ASV)

In 1920, when Nee was seventeen, a Chinese evangelist named Dora Yu came preaching. She was part of a wave of Chinese evangelists who were proving something important: the gospel in China no longer belonged only to foreign missionaries. Chinese Christians were preaching Christ to Chinese listeners, with real spiritual authority.

Nee's mother, Lin Heping, renewed her own faith under Dora Yu's preaching, and it changed the whole household. One well-known part of the family story is that she apologised to her son for having treated him unjustly. Later tellings may not have every detail exactly right. But think about what that would have meant to a seventeen-year-old: a parent saying, “I was wrong.” Seeing faith make an adult humble may have done more for him than any argument could.

Nee's problem was not that Christianity was strange to him. It was that he knew enough to see what real conversion would cost. He had ambitions, gifts and prospects. The gospel doesn't only ask whether you admire Jesus; it announces that Jesus is Lord. Nee understood that receiving Christ meant giving up the right to decide where his gifts and his future would go. That struggle was the heart of his conversion. When he surrendered, he described it as the beginning of a genuinely new life.

It got practical fast. Like many in the revival movements of his time, Nee set about putting right the wrongs he had done. Think of Zacchaeus in the Gospels, who didn't just feel bad about cheating people but paid them back. Making things right can't buy forgiveness; it is the fruit of grace, not the price of it. But grace that never changes how you live is worth questioning.

Then there was love. Nee cared for a young woman named Charity Chang before she shared his faith. He believed that marrying someone who did not believe would go against Scripture (“Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers”), and he faced a painful choice. He gave up the relationship rather than let romance rule over obedience. He had no idea how that story would turn out.

He later taught that surrender is not a deal with God. You don't give something up so that God owes you its return. Abraham raised the knife over Isaac without a secret contract. For Nee, as you'll see, the relationship did come back. Many faithful believers give things up that never come back, and their obedience is no less good.

And conversion turned straight into witness. Nee joined other young believers in sharing the gospel and studying the Bible. A huge ministry later grew from that small beginning: a converted student talking about Christ.

“Ye are not your own” can sound like a cage. But Paul never says it on its own. He adds, “for ye were bought with a price.” The One who claims you is the One who gave himself for you. Christian surrender isn't fear of a religious system; it is an answer to love. And it reaches into ordinary decisions: what you do with your mind, who you date, what you aim for.

One thing to do this week: is there a wrong you could put right? Something borrowed and never returned, a lie that needs correcting, an apology you owe? Pick one and deal with it this week, quietly and wisely. If putting it right might hurt someone else, ask a parent or pastor how to go about it first.