Stay Where You Were Called
STAY WHERE YOU WERE CALLED
1 CORINTHIANS 7:17-24
When we become Christians, God generally wants us to remain where we are so we can witness to others around us.
The apostle’s ruling direction in the delicate concerns of husband-wife relationships, where one partner is a Christian and the other is not, is given in 7:15: “God has called you to live in peace,” ie wholeness of life in which our personalities can, under his good will, develop and mature.
The same ruling applies in the next section (7:17-24). The discussion, however, has shifted, if momentarily, from marriage to social and racial distinctions.
Circumcision was a mark to which the Jewish people attached great importance (Romans 3:1). Paul’s attitude was what he adopted to all religious ceremonial: it is useful if practiced with sincere motive and as a spiritual aid within the overall context of salvation by faith alone, by grace alone. So he can confess “Circumcision has value, if you obey the law” (Romans 2:25); and obedience implies another “circumcision” (Romans 2:29, already anticipated in Jeremiah 4:4; Philippians 3:3). In the light of this a physical sign in the flesh is of little value (7:19; Galatians 6:15)—but is a positive spiritual menace if trusted as an article of salvation. Therefore, his controversy with the Judaizers in Galatia.
Social status presents a more complex issue. Slavery was a commonplace part of the Graeco-Roman society in which the church was born. Paul raised no standard of rebellion against this inhuman institution. We may ask why he did not—and find part of our answer in his letter to Philemon.
There were opportunities for a slave to gain freedom, chiefly by the payment of a sum of money deposited in a temple and transferred to the slave’s owner. Paul encourages this process (7:21) and moves on to remind all, whether slaves or freed, that they are under the yoke of Christ and are his purchased property (7:23). Use your present lot—and hope for the best. This is his practical advice (7:24); and he himself exemplified it (Philippians 4:11-13).