Who's the Master?

Who's the Master?
Sho'nuff!
Who's the Master?
Sho'nuff!
Who is the Master?
Sho'nuff!

Oh man, this brings back memories. To this day the movie "The Last Dragon" still holds first place in my book. Released in 1985, "The Last Dragon" is a classic, African-American karate/love story about a young man named Bruce Leroy (a black version of the original Bruce Lee) who is in search of "the master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight the evil martial arts expert named Sho'nuff and an rescue a beautiful singer (Vanity) from an obsessed music promoter. During the course of his journey he runs into Sho'Nuff periodically who constantly reminds Leroy that Sho'nuff is the master. However in a heated battle between the two in the end, Leroy realizes that he was the master all along in which upon this realization, he begins to glow. One night the Holy Spirit asked me,"Who's the Master?" "You are!" I exclaimed. Again He asked, "Who's the Master?" "You", I said. He asked a third time, "Who's the Master?" "You. I think."

Romans 6:11-14 "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

Thinking in gray and white is a characteristic that perceivers tend to have and although I've never considered it to be a negative trait, it was at this fundamental lesson in my life that it worked against me. When I say gray and white in relation to the subject of mastery, I'm talking about God and the Devil. Nonetheless, it is still a common biblical understanding that according to Romans 8:1 we, as humans are governed under one law or the other. "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death". So, we have the law of sin and death which was brought forth through one man, Adam, that resulted in a universal law of sin. Then, we have the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which through belief and confession of the one they call Christ, one is released from one law to falling subject to another law in Christ Jesus. From the previous statements we can then conclude that mastery in relation to humans, is inevitable. On that note it is also fitting to suggest that mastery has children…it has parts. Therefore for a perceiver personality like me I'll have to put aside my gray and white, God and the Devil position on life and consider it's elements.

John 10: 34 "Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.' "

A master is someone that has complete control and ownership over another. Meaning, if you are subject to this mastery then you are not in a state to resist it's control over you. Thus, anything that you can't resist, is your master and you are a slave to that. I've realized that this can be anywhere from cigarettes to sex to anger and unforgiveness. Unforgiveness interests me the most, because there was a time when I chose not to forgive a particular person for years and years, and for year and years it dominated me, even when I didn't think it was. I would say I forgave, but wouldn't forget or that I moved on. But, it plagued me. I became a slave to it, because I couldn’t resist the bitterness. A friend of mine is struggling with a particular sexual sin and one day we had a conversation and he said, "You know what Khristi, I tried to live that life. And for years, I couldn't help but feel this way. So finally I just gave into it. And now I feel so much more freedom". What a cloud of deception he had fallen to, to believe that he was free to live in that form of bondage. He couldn't resist. He had to give in. I can't imagine feeling the weight of that much pressure so I pray for him. After that conversation ended, it was clear what his master was.

Romans 6:16 "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?"

Unfortunately, there are those who are okay with being slaves to sin. The thing is this: If I, knowing that regardless of what I do, will be living under someone else's regime for my entire life, and have to make a choice as to which I will live under, even if this was the first day I have ever heard of Christianity, I would chose Christ.

Romans 6:19-23 "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."