"For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman; likewise, he who was called while free, is Christ's slave!" (I Corinthians 7:22)
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 7:1-16, the apostle Paul gave instructions and guidelines to the Corinthian believers on marriage and divorce, but also his personal views on the benefits of remaining single (like him!) in order to be unencumbered in serving the Lord. But because of the immorality that pervaded the Corinthian culture, he called for "each man to have his own wife and for each woman to have her own husband...and for each one to fulfill his or her duties to one another...and, in particular, not to deprive each other (speaking of their sexual relations), except by agreement for a time to devote themselves to prayer; but then to come together again," so that Satan wouldn't tempt them with infidelity! He also urged the unmarried and widows to remain unmarried, even as he was, but to marry "if they lacked self-control, noting "it's better to marry than to burn"!
Moreover, he wrote that "the wife should not leave her husband, but if she did, to remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband...and that the husband should not divorce his wife"! And, more specifically, that "if any brother had a wife who was not a believer, but consents to live with him, he must not divorce her; and likewise, "if a believing wife had an unbelieving husband"! For the unbelieving wife or husband "is sanctified through the unbelieving partner," and even the children (he said) are somehow protected in that kind of situation by God "who gives the grace needed"!
But Paul also added, that "if the unbelieving one leaves, let him (or her) leave, in which case the brother (or sister) is not under bondage, because the Lord has called us to peace"! In other words, as MacArthur notes, "the believing brother or sister is then free to remarry another believer"!
Jesus, we recalled, addressed the issue of marriage and divorce head-on, in Matthew 19:3-9, in response to a question raised by the Pharisees about "whether if was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?" And how can we ever forget His timeless reply: "Have you not read (he said) that He who created them made them male and female, and that for this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh!" To which the Pharisees asked: "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and send her away"? And He answered: "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way! And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery!"
Then we ended last week's lesson by looking at some other timeless principles, in Ephesians 5:22-33, that the apostle Paul gave to believers in the church of Ephesus about how Christian husbands and wives should live together in harmony and peace, and particularly in a troubled world like theirs then (and ours today!) where immorality and family conflict and all kinds of related evil continue to reign: "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord...and husbands, love your wives, just s Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she might be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies...This is a great mystery; and I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you is also to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband!" Wow!
And that set the tone for our lesson last night, on verses 17-24, where the apostle Paul gives another great principle for living the Christian life, a principle that's just as pertinent for us today as it was for the Corinthians when Paul wrote it; and has to do, basically, with being content "to remain in the place where God has called you"!
As background for this lesson, MacArthur writes that "discontent was prevalent among the new believers in the Corinthian church (as noted in verses 1-16) and that, as a result, some wanted to change their marital status, some were considering celibacy, some were slaves who wanted to be free, and some wanted to use their 'freedom in Christ' to rationalize sinning"! Bremmer adds that "to many Corinthian minds, Christianity must have appeared to be revolutionary in its tendencies! It proclaimed the equality of all men in the sight of God, the temporary nature of earthly things, the approaching advent of the Lord, when a new advent would dawn...and so they were ready to cast off their family obligations, disrupt social ties, and break up every earthly relationship"! It was in response to this predicament and outlook that Paul gives the basic principle stated in verse 17 (and repeats it for emphasis in verses 20 and 22!), that believers should willingly accept their marital conditions and the social situation into which the Lord has placed them, and where they were when they were called (or saved), and be content to serve there until He would lead them elsewhere!
I Corinthians 7:17 begins with, "Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk..."! And he repeats it again, for emphasis, in verses 20 and 22! The NIV says "...to live in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them..."! And Phillips says, "I merely add to the above (i.e., referring back to verses 1-16) that each man should live his life with the gifts that God has given him and in the condition in which God called him" (thus making a connection with last week's lesson)! And, in making that connection, Constable writes that "whether a person is unmarried or married, or married to a believer or to an unbeliever, the Christian should regard his or her current state as the place where God has placed him or her for the time being...and that he or she should concentrate on serving the Lord in that state rather than spending most of one's time and energy trying to change it!" And, in that same connection, Paul said that "if a man was called when he was already circumcised, he is not to become uncircumcised (as some apparently tried to do, to be accepted by their Gentile brothers), or if called while uncircumcised, not to be circumcised! "For in Christ Jesus (he adds in Galatians 5:6), neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love"!
And so this principle of "remaining in one's present state applies to being circumcised or uncircumcised as well as to being married or unmarried was (and still is!) secondary to following Christ obediently," according to this passage! (Interestingly, despite this admonition, and to show that there were sometimes exceptions to the rule, Acts 16:3 says that "Paul wanted Timothy (whose father was Greek) to be circumcised when Paul took him with him to minister to the Jews in Derbe"!)
"Were you called while a slave?" Paul asks, in verse 21! "Don't worry about it, but if you are able also to become free, rather do that! For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman; likewise, he who was called while free, is Christ's slave!" Wow! What a change in perspective for the believer, regardless of his position, or the circumstances of his (or her) life! Paul would later write in Ephesians 6:5-8, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart! With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free!" And, in this same light, we can't leave out Paul's epistle to Philemon, which centers on the runaway slave Onesimus, whom Paul had led to the Lord while in prison! And as it happened, Oneimus'' owner was Philemon, who was also a Christian, in whose home the church of Colosse met! And so Paul makes a strong appeal for Philemon to accept Onesimus back, not as a slave but as a Christian brother!
All believers, Paul invokes, should look at their station in life, their occupation, and their relationships as "Divine appointments," their occupations as "vocations of God"! And therefore "to remain in the place where they were called! And 'bloom where they have been planted!"
And so, Paul is saying, we can live contentedly as Christians in a dictatorship, in a democracy, or even in an anarchy! We can be Christians whether we are men or women, children or adults, married or single, Jew or Gentile, slave or free! Whether we live in the United States, Russia, Cuba, or China! His purpose for believers is not for them to revolutionize society but for Him to revolutionize their hearts and lives, and in that way be an influence it the world around them! Whoever we are and wherever we are, we can be Christians and serve God's purpose!
We have been "bought with a price," so we shouldn't allow ourselves to be slaves of men,"--meaning "slaves to the ways of the world, according to verse 23, which is the only slavery really "worth worrying about"!
Hodge writes that "they are only free whom Christ makes free! He our Redeemer, and the author of our liberty"!
Romans 8:1-2 says, "Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death!"
Galatians 5:1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery!"
And John 8:36 caps it off with, "If Christ has set you free, you are free indeed!" Yea! Hallelujah!
!
In closing, here are the words to an old Christian hymn that's seems to aptly fit this passage (You may want to sing along with me!):
"Free from the Law, O happy condition! Jesus has bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall; Christ has redeemed us, once for all!
(Chorus) "Once for all--oh, sinner receive it; once for all--oh, doubter believe it;
cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us, once for all!"
"There on the cross your burden upbearing; thorns on His brow your Savior is wearing;
never again your sin need appall; you have been pardoned, once for all!"
(Chorus)
"Now we are free--there's no condemnation; Jesus provides a perfect salvation;
'Come unto Me, oh hear His sweet call; come and He saves us, once for all!"
(Chorus)
Children of God--oh, glorious calling; surely His grace will keep us from falling;
passing from death to life at His call; blessed salvation, once for all!"
(Chorus--one more time!)
May "the God of all comfort" comfort you all, indeed!
Lowell
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 7:1-16, the apostle Paul gave instructions and guidelines to the Corinthian believers on marriage and divorce, but also his personal views on the benefits of remaining single (like him!) in order to be unencumbered in serving the Lord. But because of the immorality that pervaded the Corinthian culture, he called for "each man to have his own wife and for each woman to have her own husband...and for each one to fulfill his or her duties to one another...and, in particular, not to deprive each other (speaking of their sexual relations), except by agreement for a time to devote themselves to prayer; but then to come together again," so that Satan wouldn't tempt them with infidelity! He also urged the unmarried and widows to remain unmarried, even as he was, but to marry "if they lacked self-control, noting "it's better to marry than to burn"!
Moreover, he wrote that "the wife should not leave her husband, but if she did, to remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband...and that the husband should not divorce his wife"! And, more specifically, that "if any brother had a wife who was not a believer, but consents to live with him, he must not divorce her; and likewise, "if a believing wife had an unbelieving husband"! For the unbelieving wife or husband "is sanctified through the unbelieving partner," and even the children (he said) are somehow protected in that kind of situation by God "who gives the grace needed"!
But Paul also added, that "if the unbelieving one leaves, let him (or her) leave, in which case the brother (or sister) is not under bondage, because the Lord has called us to peace"! In other words, as MacArthur notes, "the believing brother or sister is then free to remarry another believer"!
Jesus, we recalled, addressed the issue of marriage and divorce head-on, in Matthew 19:3-9, in response to a question raised by the Pharisees about "whether if was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?" And how can we ever forget His timeless reply: "Have you not read (he said) that He who created them made them male and female, and that for this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh!" To which the Pharisees asked: "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and send her away"? And He answered: "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way! And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery!"
Then we ended last week's lesson by looking at some other timeless principles, in Ephesians 5:22-33, that the apostle Paul gave to believers in the church of Ephesus about how Christian husbands and wives should live together in harmony and peace, and particularly in a troubled world like theirs then (and ours today!) where immorality and family conflict and all kinds of related evil continue to reign: "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord...and husbands, love your wives, just s Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she might be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies...This is a great mystery; and I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you is also to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband!" Wow!
And that set the tone for our lesson last night, on verses 17-24, where the apostle Paul gives another great principle for living the Christian life, a principle that's just as pertinent for us today as it was for the Corinthians when Paul wrote it; and has to do, basically, with being content "to remain in the place where God has called you"!
As background for this lesson, MacArthur writes that "discontent was prevalent among the new believers in the Corinthian church (as noted in verses 1-16) and that, as a result, some wanted to change their marital status, some were considering celibacy, some were slaves who wanted to be free, and some wanted to use their 'freedom in Christ' to rationalize sinning"! Bremmer adds that "to many Corinthian minds, Christianity must have appeared to be revolutionary in its tendencies! It proclaimed the equality of all men in the sight of God, the temporary nature of earthly things, the approaching advent of the Lord, when a new advent would dawn...and so they were ready to cast off their family obligations, disrupt social ties, and break up every earthly relationship"! It was in response to this predicament and outlook that Paul gives the basic principle stated in verse 17 (and repeats it for emphasis in verses 20 and 22!), that believers should willingly accept their marital conditions and the social situation into which the Lord has placed them, and where they were when they were called (or saved), and be content to serve there until He would lead them elsewhere!
I Corinthians 7:17 begins with, "Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk..."! And he repeats it again, for emphasis, in verses 20 and 22! The NIV says "...to live in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them..."! And Phillips says, "I merely add to the above (i.e., referring back to verses 1-16) that each man should live his life with the gifts that God has given him and in the condition in which God called him" (thus making a connection with last week's lesson)! And, in making that connection, Constable writes that "whether a person is unmarried or married, or married to a believer or to an unbeliever, the Christian should regard his or her current state as the place where God has placed him or her for the time being...and that he or she should concentrate on serving the Lord in that state rather than spending most of one's time and energy trying to change it!" And, in that same connection, Paul said that "if a man was called when he was already circumcised, he is not to become uncircumcised (as some apparently tried to do, to be accepted by their Gentile brothers), or if called while uncircumcised, not to be circumcised! "For in Christ Jesus (he adds in Galatians 5:6), neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love"!
And so this principle of "remaining in one's present state applies to being circumcised or uncircumcised as well as to being married or unmarried was (and still is!) secondary to following Christ obediently," according to this passage! (Interestingly, despite this admonition, and to show that there were sometimes exceptions to the rule, Acts 16:3 says that "Paul wanted Timothy (whose father was Greek) to be circumcised when Paul took him with him to minister to the Jews in Derbe"!)
"Were you called while a slave?" Paul asks, in verse 21! "Don't worry about it, but if you are able also to become free, rather do that! For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman; likewise, he who was called while free, is Christ's slave!" Wow! What a change in perspective for the believer, regardless of his position, or the circumstances of his (or her) life! Paul would later write in Ephesians 6:5-8, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart! With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free!" And, in this same light, we can't leave out Paul's epistle to Philemon, which centers on the runaway slave Onesimus, whom Paul had led to the Lord while in prison! And as it happened, Oneimus'' owner was Philemon, who was also a Christian, in whose home the church of Colosse met! And so Paul makes a strong appeal for Philemon to accept Onesimus back, not as a slave but as a Christian brother!
All believers, Paul invokes, should look at their station in life, their occupation, and their relationships as "Divine appointments," their occupations as "vocations of God"! And therefore "to remain in the place where they were called! And 'bloom where they have been planted!"
And so, Paul is saying, we can live contentedly as Christians in a dictatorship, in a democracy, or even in an anarchy! We can be Christians whether we are men or women, children or adults, married or single, Jew or Gentile, slave or free! Whether we live in the United States, Russia, Cuba, or China! His purpose for believers is not for them to revolutionize society but for Him to revolutionize their hearts and lives, and in that way be an influence it the world around them! Whoever we are and wherever we are, we can be Christians and serve God's purpose!
We have been "bought with a price," so we shouldn't allow ourselves to be slaves of men,"--meaning "slaves to the ways of the world, according to verse 23, which is the only slavery really "worth worrying about"!
Hodge writes that "they are only free whom Christ makes free! He our Redeemer, and the author of our liberty"!
Romans 8:1-2 says, "Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death!"
Galatians 5:1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery!"
And John 8:36 caps it off with, "If Christ has set you free, you are free indeed!" Yea! Hallelujah!
!
In closing, here are the words to an old Christian hymn that's seems to aptly fit this passage (You may want to sing along with me!):
"Free from the Law, O happy condition! Jesus has bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall; Christ has redeemed us, once for all!
(Chorus) "Once for all--oh, sinner receive it; once for all--oh, doubter believe it;
cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us, once for all!"
"There on the cross your burden upbearing; thorns on His brow your Savior is wearing;
never again your sin need appall; you have been pardoned, once for all!"
(Chorus)
"Now we are free--there's no condemnation; Jesus provides a perfect salvation;
'Come unto Me, oh hear His sweet call; come and He saves us, once for all!"
(Chorus)
Children of God--oh, glorious calling; surely His grace will keep us from falling;
passing from death to life at His call; blessed salvation, once for all!"
(Chorus--one more time!)
May "the God of all comfort" comfort you all, indeed!
Lowell
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