Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
"You are not your own" sounds, at first pass, like a loss of autonomy — the kind of line that makes people bristle, especially if they've spent years fighting to own their own choices, their own body, their own life. It's worth sitting with that reaction instead of rushing past it, because it's not an unreasonable one to have.
But look at what the verse pairs it with: bought at a price. Not seized, not claimed by force, but purchased — which implies a previous owner willing to pay something significant to have you. That's a very different picture than being controlled. It's closer to being wanted enough that someone gave up something valuable to have you.
The conclusion the verse draws isn't "so behave." It's "so glorify God in your body" — treat your physical existence, the part of you that's easiest to devalue or misuse, as something worth honoring, because it was worth buying. Whatever you make of the price paid, the underlying claim is that your body was never just yours to spend however you liked, and never just an object either.
If your body was bought rather than seized, does that change how you'd want to treat it?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.