Our True Worth- 1Corinthians 6:19-20

God has created human beings with an inherent need for worth and acceptance, we all need to feel like we are worth something, and a sense of worthlessness is the source of all kinds of mental and emotional issues in the lives of those who feel worthless. This post will address two primary issues: 1) How is worth determined 2) What does the Bible say about our “worth”? Webster’s dictionary defines worth as “the value of a thing”, the worth of someone or something is determined by its “value”. Value, however, is an inherently subjective thing. What this means is that the value of something is determined by someone else, and what is of great value to one person may be of little or no value to someone else. Take the example of a used car. If I am selling a used car and buyer A offers me $6000, then the car is worth $6000 to buyer A, the car and the $6000 are of equal value. Buyer B then comes along and offers me $8000 for the same car, so the car is worth “more” to buyer B than to buyer A. Buyer C then comes along and offers me $10000 for the same car, so the car is then worth more to buyer C than to buyer A or B, the car and the $10000 are equal in value. So the car is therefore worth $10000, and even though I may value it at $20000, it is not worth $20000, because no one is willing to accept my valuation, its ultimate worth is determined by others. The cars worth to me then is determined by someone else, determined by what others are willing to pay for it, by what they see its value to be. Human beings also derive their sense of self-worth from the opinions of others, from the value others place upon them. Our worth in the job market (salary) is determined by the value which the market places upon us and the usefulness of our particular skills, those with a particular set of skills are more valued (worth more) than those without that set of skills. So we see that our worth is ultimately determined by the value which others place upon us, and we get our sense of worth ultimately from others, for this is the nature of “worth”. For the believer, the Bible tells us what our true worth is and from where our sense of self-worth is to be derived. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells believers that “You are not your own; you were bought at a price”. As we remember first of all from our discussion above about worth, the worth or value of something is determined by what someone else is willing to pay for it. So our worth is determined by the value which is placed upon us by others, and we find here that God “paid a price” to buy every single believer. And what price was God willing to pay for us? The price of His Son, who He sent to die on a cross for our sins. The mind blowing reality we find here is that God considered us of equal worth to Him as His one and only Son, God felt we were worth incarnating Himself, coming to earth to suffer and die on a cross for every one of us, so we must conclude that we are of infinite worth to God. This leads to the second conclusion, also from our discussion above. Since our worth is ultimately determined by someone else, as believers we are to derive our sense of worth from God alone and from no one else. Worth and value are ultimately subjective in nature, they are ultimately determined by others, a matter of opinion. We choose who we will derive our sense of worth from, and as believers we must determine our sense of worth from the opinion of the only one who ultimately matters. The only opinion of us that really and truly matters is God’s opinion of us, and God has demonstrably and definitively shown that we are of infinite worth to Him. So let us derive our sense of worth from God alone, for He is the only source of a sure and settled sense of self worth. Let us no longer derive our sense of self worth from the unstable and varying opinions of others, but let us learn to value ourselves as God does, for we will never be “worthless” to Him.