INNER CIRCLE: All Things Are Yours

By quoting these texts to teach us that we (as Christians) are set apart from non-believers and use them to validate an Us vs Them perspective, their impact is often lost on us.

However, when we begin to look at Paul’s teachings on Oneness, Connection, and Unity in Christ, the pattern becomes unmistakable. Paul really does believe that “Christ is all and is in all,” and therefore, the Christ in everyone makes us One with God and with all Humanity.

We are all the Temple of God. God’s Spirit dwells in everyone. This is proven by what Paul says to those idol-worshipping pagans in Athens (see Acts 17:28): “In Him we all live and move and have our being.” That means that everyone – Christian, Non-Christian, Pagan, Atheist, etc. – is “in Christ” and Christ is in everyone.

There was a time when I resisted this way of thinking. I argued constantly with my friend, Jamal, about this topic. My perspective (which was drilled into me after years of Evangelical indoctrination) was that only those who invited Christ into their hearts were filled with Christ. All the rest may be “in Christ” (per Acts 17:28), but Christ was not in everyone.

My analogy was that you could submerge an empty water bottle into the depths of the ocean and rightly assert that the bottle was “in the ocean,” but until you unscrewed the cap and allowed the water to rush inside, the ocean was not in the bottle.

I really liked that analogy. It worked for me. I thought I had made my point. But, a few years later, in a conversation with another friend of mine, it was brought to my attention that the Apostle Paul says this: “Christ is all and in all.” (Col. 3:11), and this: “(Christ) who fills everything in every way.” (Eph. 3:23)

That made me stop and reconsider everything I had come to believe up to that point. How could Christ be “all and in all” and “fill everything in every way” if there were some people (non-Christians) who were not also filled with Christ? It didn’t compute, and that was when I had to concede that, at least according to the Apostle Paul, Christ was in everyone, and everyone was in Christ. We are all filled with the Spirit of Christ. This means that the bottle is submerged in the depths of the ocean, and the ocean is both outside and inside the bottle.

So, when we read the text above without the imposed filter of separation and division, it should make us pause and consider the wonder of God’s love for all humanity. Not just the Christians who have prayed the prayer, but everyone, everywhere.

Let’s read it again:

“Do you not know that you are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit dwells within you?… So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the cosmos or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. So, let a man account us as servants of the Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.”

Everyone is the Temple of God. God’s Spirit is alive within everyone. So, there is no need to look to human leaders: Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, Gurus, etc., because every single one of us is filled with God’s Spirit. Every one of us has the mind of Christ. We can all know the will of God and hear the voice of God and experience our Oneness with God. There is no need for a human intermediary to speak for God. We have direct access. God is as near to you as your own heartbeat. As close to you as your own thoughts.

This is the entire point of the New Covenant, by the way. God’s promise was that “everyone will know me, from the least to the greatest,” and now this is our new reality. (See Jeremiah 31:33-34) Every time we share the cup and eat the bread during a Communion Service, we are affirming that this promise has been fulfilled in Christ. This New Covenant is in full effect. We are all filled with the Divine Presence.

All things are yours, even those Apostles, and teachers and leaders, yes, but also the mysteries of the Cosmos, and Space and Time. All are yours. You are of Christ, and Christ is of God. Everything we do is in service to the Christ and we are the stewards of the mysteries of God.

Take a moment to consider this. Let it settle into your bones.

Don’t just believe it: know it.

My new book, The Quantum Gospel of Philip and the Valentinian Christ is available now on Amazon.

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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, Coast To Coast with George Noory, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He co-hosts the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.