However, as the Lord has divided to each, as God has called each, so let him walk; and thus I ordain in all the assemblies.
Paul has been answering questions about marriage, mixed marriage and separation. At verse 17 he pauses the specific cases. He lays down a wider rule for every believer's position in life, and says he teaches it everywhere.
The verse names two acts, and gives each to a different person:
Notice first how carefully this verse distinguishes. It traces the calling to God, who gives life to the dead. It traces the distributing to the Lord, as Head of His own house. The Father has given Him all things, and He gives to His own as He pleases. The verse also claims for every believer full liberty to serve God according to the measure of his ability, without another dictating to him.
One writer states our part in this, then notes a slip in older Bibles:
Our place is one of intelligent submission. We acknowledge the Lord's allotment and God's call: the one given at the time of conversion, the other the permanent condition. You will see that the Authorised Version, following the common text, reverses the true relationships here. It is God who has called and the Lord who divided, not the reverse, as in what is known as the Received Text.
The rule runs on through verse 24, and it comes with one exception:
Verses 17 to 24 lay down the principle that, generally speaking, a person who was converted was to stay in the same relationships as before. Of course, if there was moral evil in them, that had to go. But the passage is not dealing with that. God had distributed to every man: none of us is in our particular circumstances merely by chance. Every assembly was to recognise this.
Because the Lord did the assigning, a change of situation is not automatic progress:
The general rule was, and he ordains it in all churches, to remain wherever one could remain with God. There was to be no restless spirit of change. That treats circumstances as the great matter, instead of God's control of them — and it is His control we ought to grasp.
The rule is not absolute. One condition decides when a position must be left:
As to jobs and positions in this world, the general rule was that everyone should stay in the state he was in when God called him. But it had to be "with God" — doing nothing that would not be to His glory. If the state itself went against His will, it was sin. Clearly he could not remain in it with God. But the general rule was to remain and glorify God in it.
The pull to move on shows up in ordinary decisions:
For example, children have sometimes thought they were right to leave their homes. Others have found the duties of their daily work tiresome, and changed their job without much thought, hoping to gain more freedom for the Lord's service. Others again have moved to other places, and even to other countries, for the same reason.
Paul states this rule as his practice everywhere, and that reach is not unusual in this letter:
This shows that the instructions apply to all who profess Christ, for all time. Again and again in this letter we find passages that refute any attempt to limit the instruction. It was never meant for one local assembly only, or for the time of the apostles only. (See 1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Cor. 7:17; 1 Cor. 11:16; 1 Cor. 14:36-37; 1 Cor. 16:1.)
- Assigned — the Lord divided your portion, and God issued the call. Both acts are His, not yours. Older Bibles swapped the two, following a different text.
- Not chance — He assigned it. Your relationships, your work, your background are not accidents to escape.
- So stay — remain where God's call found you. A restless spirit treats circumstances as the great matter. His control of them is the great matter.
- With God — the one limit: if the position itself is against His will, you cannot stay in it with Him, and you must go.
- Everywhere — Paul rules this way in all the churches. It is not local advice for Corinth. It stands for every believer.
Has any one been called circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised has any one been called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.
Paul has been telling believers not to overturn their lives because they have come to Christ. Now he applies the same rule to the deepest religious divide of his day: Jew and Gentile. Should becoming a Christian change what you were when God called you?
The verse gives two opposite cases and refuses both changes. Why is neither change worth making?
Christ raises the Christian above all circumstances. So when God calls someone, changing is not worth the trouble. Why should the circumcised man want to disguise or wipe out the fact that he is circumcised? Why should the uncircumcised man seek it or submit to it? It is no longer a question of distinctions in the flesh. What God values, and what the Christian should value, is keeping His commandments. It is not forms of truth or schools of doctrine, which are a certain danger.
Notice what else he puts in the same class as the mark in the body: a favourite school of doctrine. Both are badges. Neither is obedience.
This was not a theoretical argument. Some were pressing the rite on Gentile converts, and the Apostle answers them flatly.
Jewish training led some to place great value on the rite of circumcision, even going so far as to say that Gentile believers could not be saved apart from circumcision (Acts 15:1). Here the Apostle states that, for the Christian, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any value. Obedience to the word of God is of value in His sight, not mere religious distinctions in the flesh.
Submitting to the rite was not a neutral act. It said where a man had placed his trust.
We must understand that "circumcision" was the mark that separated those who trusted in the law from all other people. It was the outward sign that a man was trusting in law. In 1 Corinthians 7:18 we read, "Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision." No man can trust in Christ and in circumcision, or in the law, at the same time. Whoever trusts in Christ does not, and cannot, trust in law.
God's call does not rearrange a person's background. The Jewish believer keeps his history, and the Gentile keeps his.
God's saving grace fits itself equally to the various states and conditions of men. His calling brings us to Himself in Christ, but leaves us personally as we were… The one should not deny his circumcision; he should give it its true honour in its place. The other should not think he can make himself more acceptable in the Father's sight by adding an outdated ritual to a living faith in Jesus. The new man has to do with God, not with outward rituals, and only the doing of His will honours Him.
Why had the mark lost its weight? Because God had changed how He deals with people.
Was someone already circumcised when God called him? Then let him not erase that mark from his body. Was he uncircumcised? Then let him not be circumcised. God was now dealing with men as men, and not first of all with a chosen nation, the descendants of Abraham. So neither condition mattered in the Church of God.
The specific dispute has passed, but the urge to fix your spiritual life by altering your outward one has not.
The point and meaning of this scripture are quite simple. The early days were confused. There was conflict with Judaism, there were the claims of teachers who pressed Jewish law, and there was the practice of household slavery. Many felt a strong pull to free themselves from these things. Nor is the temptation absent today, even if it takes another form. For example, children have sometimes thought they were right to leave home. Others have found their daily work tiresome and switched jobs without much thought, hoping to gain more freedom for the Lord's service. Others again have moved to other places, and even to other countries, for the same reason.
The settled spirit matters as much as the settled place.
There should be no restless spirit of change, as if circumstances were the great consideration, rather than God's control of circumstances.
- Called. God's call reaches a person where he is. It brings him to Christ but leaves him as he was.
- Unchanged. The Jew is not to erase his mark, the Gentile is not to acquire one — no one has to imitate the other's background.
- Nothing. The mark and its absence now stand on the same footing. God deals with men as men, not first of all with one chosen nation.
- Everything. Obedience replaces the badge. God looks for the keeping of His commandments, not marks in the body or favourite schools of doctrine.
- Settled. Christ lifts the believer above his circumstances. Changing home, work or country to gain more freedom for the Lord misses the point.
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping God's commandments.
Paul writes to believers from very different backgrounds: some Jews with the mark of circumcision, some Gentiles without it, and some wanting to switch. His answer empties both marks of value and puts everything on one thing: obedience.
Circumcision was no small matter to Paul's first readers.
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Jewish training led some to place great value on the rite of circumcision. Some even said that Gentile believers could not be saved without circumcision (Acts 15:1). Here the apostle states that, for the Christian, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any value. Obedience to the word of God is of value in His sight, not mere religious distinctions in the flesh.
The distinction collapsed because God had changed the way He deals with people.
That is, obedience to God is what really matters, not whether a person has gone through the outward rite set up in Genesis 17. If God called a man who was already circumcised, he must not erase that mark from his body. If God called him uncircumcised, he must not get circumcised. God was dealing with men now as men, and not primarily with an elect nation, the seed of Abraham. So neither the one condition nor the other was of importance in the Church of God.
The reason the mark counts for nothing lies in what a ceremony can and cannot do.
Circumcision was only an outward cutting of the flesh, only an outward ceremony. As we have so often seen in this letter, the Holy Spirit insists that outward forms and ceremonies have no power at all. Both circumcision and uncircumcision alike can never produce any results for God. So a circumcised man is just as helpless to please God as an uncircumcised man. The spiritual meaning of circumcision was "a heart affair."
If both marks are nothing, one thing is left — and it is not another badge.
It is no longer a question of distinctions in the flesh. What God values, and what the Christian should value, is keeping His commandments. It is not forms of truth or schools of doctrine, which are without question a danger. God sets the believer apart for obedience — the obedience of Christ, not that of a Jew.
The word "commandments" sends a reader back to Sinai. Writers agree that Paul means something else.
The commandments in 1 Corinthians 7:19 are not those of Sinai. They stand for the way of life that springs from the new nature.
Another writer says which commandments these are.
The knowledge of Christ lifts a person above the mere questions of circumcision or uncircumcision. Neither one had any spiritual importance now. What mattered was keeping the commandments of God — not the ten commandments, but those of the New Testament. For in new creation there is neither Jew nor Gentile.
This verse is one of three places where the apostle sets up the same contrast and finishes it differently each time — the other two being Galatians 5:6 and 6:15. Reading them together fills out what he means.
In the past that solemn rite carried great value. But now that Christ has come, the reality behind it all is here for those who believe. The shadow fades away in this, as in everything else. Having ordinances, or submitting to them, makes no one acceptable to God. He looks for the practical fruit of faith in all who bear the name of His Son. Faith works by love, and leads to the fulfilling of the commandments of God. Where this is seen, all else is of small account.
This obedience belongs in the life you are already living.
When it comes to a person's place in life, as in marriage, the believer's path is to accept the situation as it stands. He simply brings a new power into it, to the glory of God. We are to remain in the calling we were in when the gospel called us, only it must be "with God" (v. 24). If we cannot have God with us in it, then we must abandon it.
- Nothing counts — The mark and the lack of it both count for zero. God now deals with people as people, not with one chosen nation.
- No power — A ceremony done to the body produces nothing for God. The circumcised man is as helpless to please Him as the uncircumcised; the real meaning of the sign was always "a heart affair."
- One thing counts — Keeping God's commandments — the practical fruit of faith working by love. The warning stands for us: schools of doctrine and favourite "forms of truth" can become the new badge.
- Whose commandments — Not Sinai's, but the New Testament's. This is the obedience of Christ, the life that flows from the new nature.
- Where it counts — In the place you were in when God called you, lived out "with God." If God cannot be with you there, leave it.
Let each abide in that calling in which he has been called.
Paul lays down a general rule for every convert: stay where God's call found you. That raises two questions — what "calling" means here, and whether a Christian may ever change.
One reference work defines the word by the ordinary place a person held in life when God called him:
the usual position or occupation of a person, whether slave or free: the Christian is urged to stay in his calling if he can stay there with God.
Commentators differ on how far the word reaches. Another writer ties it to the condition God's call found a person in, and rules out ordinary jobs:
The calling seems to mean the condition God had placed a person in when He called him. Here it is applied to circumcision or uncircumcision, freedom or slavery, not to earthly occupations, as people commonly suppose. Some jobs might involve a good deal that clashes with God's word and offends a Christian's conscience.
This was not local advice for Corinth alone. The rule Paul sets in every church aims at an attitude of the heart.
The general rule was to stay wherever a person could stay with God, and he lays this down in all the churches. There was to be no restless spirit of change, as if circumstances were the great matter rather than God's control of them. That control is what should be grasped.
The pressures behind this rule belonged to the first century. The temptation did not stay there:
The apostles' days were confused. There was conflict with Judaism, and there were the claims of teachers who pressed the Jewish law; there was also the practice of household slavery. Many were strongly tempted to free themselves from both. The same temptation is still here today, even if it takes another form. For example, children have sometimes thought they were right to leave their homes. Others have found their daily work tiresome and changed their job without much thought, to get what they believed would be more freedom for the Lord's service. Others again have moved to other places, and even to other countries, for the same reason.
The call leaves the position as it is. What it changes is who the person in that position belongs to.
The Christian slave is the Lord's freeman; the Christian freeman is Christ's slave. The Lord's authority breaks the chains of the first, so far as his faith goes; the grace of Christ makes a slave of the second, in his heart. "You were bought with a price." Free man or slave, all were bought.
Verse 20 is not absolute. Verse 24 repeats it with two added words that set the limit.
In your earthly calling, as in marriage, the believer's path is to accept the situation as it stands. He simply brings a new power into it, for the glory of God. We are to stay in the calling we were in when the gospel called us, but it must be "with God" (v. 24). If we cannot have God with us in it, then we must leave it.
Commentators take opposite views here. One holds that the slave does better to stay, even if he can gain his release:
Even if freedom were within his reach, he would do better to stay where God first found and blessed him. For even in his chains he is Christ's freedman and companion.
Another calls that idea an extreme, and one that only a comfortable theorist could hold:
Some speculative minds have read an extreme view into these words, as if the Christian had better stay a slave even when he could be free. The words say no such thing. That dream might appeal to a student in his comfortable library. It would not appeal to him if he knew from experience what slavery meant.
The rule is not a plan for changing society. It leaves the world as it is and aims at something else:
Christians are not called to reform the world as they pass through it. They are called to behave as heavenly people should, in the middle of it all. These principles are addressed to slaves, but they apply just as strongly to people in paid work.
- Called there. "Calling" here is where you stood when God's call reached you — married or single, slave or free.
- Stay there. The rule stands against restlessness. Circumstances are not the great matter; God's control of them is.
- Free there. Staying costs you nothing. The call has already made the slave the Lord's free man, and the free man Christ's slave.
- With God there. The rule holds only as far as you can stay there with God. Leave any position you cannot hold with Him.
- Shine there. The aim is not to reform the world on the way through, but to live inside it as a heavenly person. That holds for any job, not only for slaves.
Hast thou been called [being] a bondman, let it not concern thee; but and if thou canst become free, use [it] rather.
Paul writes to believers in Corinth about the social position they were in when God called them. The hardest case was a slave, and the verse asks whether faith should make you push to change your outward situation.
Life was bitter for a believer owned by a household that knew nothing of God.
A slave's condition in those days was no doubt distressing. Picture a master who did not know God, sunk in the worst moral corruption, with Christian slaves, men or women. They could hardly escape the sight and sound of the most defiling talk. They always had to face what stood completely opposed to the purity of new life in Christ. You can understand how natural it would be for a slave's heart to long for rescue from such a life. But setting the heart on that kind of rescue is the very thing the apostle rebukes here.
The command aims at worry. It rests on trusting that the Lord sees the position and arranged it.
"Let it not be a care to you": he must not treat the Lord as if He did not look on the one He loved, or share his sorrow and condition. Let him believe that it was He who ordered it all. It is His to arrange, ours to obey. Is it for a soldier on the battlefield to choose what he will do?
There is even a way to carry the position well.
The Christian slave is not to mind his chains, nor long for a natural freedom that he might be tempted to misuse... The believing slave is to wear his chains as ornaments of grace rather than as badges of shame.
The second half of the verse can be read two ways. Older translations end it "use it rather", without saying what to use — the freedom, or the slavery. The ESV settles the question in favour of freedom.
Many in ancient and in modern times read this last verse (21) quite differently. They take it to mean: even if you can be free, use the bondage instead. Prefer to be a slave rather than a free man. But this seems extreme. It also gives the human circumstances too much weight, as if slavery suited Christian living better than freedom.
Others took the opposite line, and drew a devotional lesson from it — that the place where grace found you is the place where grace is best displayed.
The Christian slave is not to mind his bonds, nor pine for a natural liberty which he might be tempted to abuse. In fact, even if freedom were within his reach, he would do better to remain where God first found and blessed him... The believing slave, therefore, is to wear his bonds rather as ornaments of grace than as badges of humiliation.
The plainer reading is this: take the freedom if it comes.
The believer who was a slave when God called him is clearly free to accept his release. But if no chance of freedom comes, he is not to make his condition a matter of concern or anxiety.
The believing slave already holds a freedom his master cannot touch. No money on earth can buy it.
The apostle urges the truth of that liberty in Christ which the Christian world has almost forgotten: if I am Christ's servant, I am already set free. Match the release he has been given, if you can. Twenty million would buy no such freedom. At the same time, if my master allows me liberty, let me use it rather.
The same grace works the other way round on a free man:
The Lord's authority breaks the slave's chains for his faith; the grace of Christ makes the free man a slave for his heart.
The verse leaves the social order standing. One writer explains why.
Christianity takes people in the social position it finds them in, and shows how they may live Christ in that place. Its work is not to remodel society, but to teach the believer to display Christ. He was to be subject to the governing authorities. Since those authorities allowed slavery, he was to obey the laws here as in other matters. He was to seek freedom by lawful means if he could, and if not, to be content with his lot.
Paul tells each person to stay where they are "with God", and that phrase sets the limit.
So while we are told to stay in our calling, whether as slaves or free men, it is to be "with God". This shows that, though it may be right to remain a slave, it would not be right to stay in some dishonest trade where you could not be "with God".
- Called. God's call reaches people where they are, whatever their social position.
- Freed. The one still owned by a master is already the Lord's freedman — a release no money on earth could buy.
- Owned. The free man is Christ's slave. Grace binds his heart as surely as the Lord's authority breaks the slave's chains.
- Released. If lawful freedom is offered, take it. Commentators differ on the sense of the clause, but the plainer reading takes it as permission to be free.
- Abiding. Stay where you are — but "with God." A dishonest trade you cannot follow with God is one you must leave.
For the bondman that is called in [the] Lord is the Lord's freedman; in like manner [also] the freeman being called is Christ's bondman.
Some believers in Corinth were slaves in Roman homes, others were free citizens, and both wondered if faith should change that. Paul answers by telling each man who owns him now: the slave is the Lord's free man, and the free man is Christ's slave.
A believer owned by a pagan master faced this pressure every day. What he saw and heard at home cut against his new life in Christ.
Think of a pagan master sunk in the worst moral filth, with Christian slaves in his house, men or women. They could hardly avoid the sight and sound of the most defiling talk. Day after day they faced what could never fit the purity of new life in Christ. We can understand how natural it was for a slave to long for rescue from such a life. But setting the heart on that kind of rescue is the very thing the apostle corrects here.
The word Paul chose is exact. It does not mean a man who was never in chains. It means a man who was in chains and got out.
The apostle explains, "For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord." That is the right force: "freedman," not "freeman." The word means a man let out of slavery, not a man born free. It is the exact term here, and it stands out all the more because "freeman" or "free-born" comes next. Christ alone puts every person in his place and true light. Freedom handed out by men cannot do this, or even come close.
Money could buy a slave out of his position. Paul points to a release money cannot match.
The apostle presses the freedom we have in Christ, which the Christian world has all but forgotten. If I am Christ's servant, I am set free already. Match, if you can, the release he already has. Twenty millions will buy no such freedom. At the same time, if my master offers me freedom, I should take it.
This is not a call to do nothing. If freedom comes, the believer may take it.
Paul then turns the sentence around for the man who was never a slave. The title changes with it: not "the Lord's" bondman, but "Christ's".
But we have to see how the apostle turns to the other side. "Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ." He now changes the phrase. He does not say the man is the Lord's bondman, but "Christ's." He might be born free, or an owner of slaves. Whatever he is, if he is a Christian, he is Christ's bondman. He is bound forever to Him who shed His blood for him. The price paid is what the apostle presses now, to make the free man feel that he is Christ's bondman. It appeals to his sense of grace, and not only to authority.
The verse sounds like a contradiction until you ask what held a man before. The deepest slavery was never the social kind.
To be a slave of Christ is to be a free man. Christ has set him free from the slavery of Satan and sin, and from the slavery of his own will, which is the most real slavery in the most terrible sense of the word. The slavery of Christ, then, is the truest liberty. The more we live in the sense of what it means to serve such a Master, the more we will enjoy and stand firm in the freedom Christ has given us.
Paul tells believers to stay where God's call found them. But two words set a limit on that.
In any case let the Christian bondman remember that he is the Lord's freeman, and the freeman that he is Christ's bondman. Both have been bought with a price. The One who bought us with the price of His precious blood has the first claim on us. So we are told to stay in our calling, whether as bondmen or freemen, but to stay there "with God". This shows that, though it may be right to remain a slave, it would not be right to carry on in some dishonest trade where a man could not be "with God".
- Called — God's call reaches people where it finds them. Social rank has nothing to say to it.
- Freed — "freedman" means a man let out of slavery, not a man born free. No money buys this release from sin, Satan and self-will.
- Bought — the free man gets the matching truth. Christ paid for him, so he belongs to Christ — an appeal to grace, not only to authority.
- Bound — both halves hold together. Christ's release frees the slave, and Christ's grace binds the free man's heart.
- Abiding — stay where you are, but stay there "with God". Take freedom if it comes, and leave any work you cannot do with a clear conscience.
Ye have been bought with a price; do not be the bondmen of men.
Some believers in Corinth were slaves and others were free, yet Paul tells both groups the same thing: Christ has already paid a price for them. So what does it mean to be "bought," and how can a bought man still live under a human master?
Notice first how far the purchase reaches, and who acts on it.
"You were bought with a price." Whether it be the free man or the slave, all were bought. The saints are the purchase of Christ's blood: so indeed is all the world; but believers alone acknowledge it, and they are called to act on it. "Do not become bondservants of men" — an appeal that binds the free as much as the slave. Serving with one aim alone secures true service, and that is perfect liberty. Strange to say, none are so likely to slip into human bondage as those who profess the Lord's name.
Being bought is not the same as being set free. Buying makes an owner; something more is needed.
What is it that sets the captive free? Is it purchase? So far from it, purchase, instead of giving me my liberty, rather makes me a bondman. I am His to serve, now and evermore, who bought me with a price — His own blood. But people do not serve Christ when it is only a question of being bought. One more blessing is needed to make the claim of purchase felt: redemption.
A hired man served for a set time and wages. A bought slave belonged to his owner outright.
His master had bought him, and therefore he was the property of his master. This, dear reader, is exactly our relationship to Christ. He has redeemed and bought us at the highest price He could pay — His own precious blood. It is a hard word to the ears of men, and rightly so, if applied to earthly relationships. But as to our relationship to Christ, there is no sweeter word to a Christian. If Christ had only hired me, I should belong to Him only for a time, but He has bought me, and so I am His own for ever.
Ownership changes what a slave is and what a free man is.
The believing slave is Christ's freedman; the free man who is called is the purchased slave of his Redeemer... Redemption sets us free from man, but sets us apart for God.
The command is not aimed at honest work. It targets a different pressure, and free men were not exempt.
Here it is a guard against pandering to others, whether for ease or honour, or to avoid pain or reproach. It was a great snare to the Corinthians — not to slaves only, but as much, or more, to the free. There is no thought here of weakening the Christian slave in serving his earthly master. Grace would strengthen him to serve with twice the zeal and honour, for he was now the Lord's freedman. How low it would be for a man born free, now bound to Christ as His slave by the deepest and most lasting of ties, to become man's slave! He does that whenever he compromises his Master, who bought him with His blood.
Slavery is not the only way to be owned. Campbell applies the verse to anyone who serves God at other people's direction.
If one is called to be the Lord's servant, how then can he hire himself out to be the servant of a denomination or a congregation and do what man tells him to do? When a man is hired, he becomes a servant to those who hire him and must please them... He bought us with the price of His precious blood, and so we are told, "do not become bondservants of men." We are to serve people in love, but Christ is our Master.
Staying where you are has one limit.
While we are told to remain in our calling, either as slaves or free men, it is to be "with God". This surely shows that, though it may be right to remain a slave, it would not be right to continue in some dishonest trade in which it would be impossible to be "with God".
- Bought. The price makes Christ the owner. Believers are simply the ones who admit a claim that already stands.
- Priced. The price was His own blood, which is why the bond is permanent: a hired man serves for a term, a bought man belongs for ever.
- Reversed. The purchase flips both conditions. The slave is now the Lord's freedman; the free man is Christ's slave.
- Guarded. The ban targets people-pleasing — for ease, for honour, or to dodge reproach. It never weakens honest service to an earthly master.
- Located. Stay where God placed you — but only so far as you can stay there "with God." The Owner's claim outranks every other voice.
Let each, wherein he is called, brethren, therein abide with God.
Paul tells the Corinthians to stay where God's call found them. But he adds two words that change everything: "with God." So the question is not whether you may change your situation. It is whether God can be with you where you are.
The urge to escape your situation is old, and it takes new forms today.
The days of the apostles were confused. There was conflict with Judaism, there were teachers pressing Jewish practice, and there was household slavery. Many felt a strong pull to free themselves from both. The temptation is still here today, though it takes another form. Children have sometimes thought they were right to leave home. Others found their daily work tiresome and changed jobs, thinking it would give them more freedom for the Lord's service. Others moved to new places, and even to other countries, for the same reason.
Everything turns on the short phrase attached to the command to remain.
As to jobs and positions in this world, the general rule was that everyone should stay in the state he was in when God called him. But it must be "with God" — doing nothing that would not be to His glory. If the state was in itself of a nature contrary to His will, it was sin; clearly he could not remain in it with God. But the general rule was to remain and glorify God in it.
Some use this verse to defend staying in any job at all. One writer answers with an extreme case.
People say, "Doesn't the apostle in 1 Corinthians 7 tell us to stay in the calling we were called in?" Yes — but with this strong qualifying clause, "abide with God." That makes a great difference. Suppose a hangman is converted. Could he stay in his job? Someone will say this is an extreme case. Granted, but it is a case in point, because it exposes the false reasoning drawn from 1 Corinthians 7. It proves there are callings in which one could not possibly "abide with God."
Christ gives the believing slave and the believing free man each a new title.
"For the bondman that was called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman." The right word here is "freedman," not "freeman." It means a man who was set free, not a man born free... "Likewise he that was called being free is Christ's bondman." Christ alone puts everyone in his true place and true light. Freedom given by human hands cannot do that, or even come near it. The Lord's authority breaks the chains of the slave for his faith. The grace of Christ makes the free man a slave for his heart.
Staying is advice, not a chain. If freedom comes within reach, the believer may take it.
Some minds have read an extreme view into the phrase: that the Christian had better remain a slave even if he could be free. It says no such thing. "Let it not be a care to you": he must not treat the Lord as though He did not look on the one He loved, or share his sorrow and his condition. Let him believe that it was He who arranged everything.
Another writer points to the force of the words themselves.
The words of verse 24 are very strong — "there let him remain with God." For both the Father and the Son make their home with the willing and obedient disciple... No chain holds us to our post, but the counsel is to stay there. And anyone who weighs how God called him will not brush that counsel aside.
Applying the verse calls for honesty about conscience and about motive.
As long as we can go on in our calling with God, it would not be according to His mind to seek a change. To go on with God means to keep a good conscience before Him in our daily duties... Find out why a calling feels tiresome, and why you want a different one. Then you will see at once whether you are going against the spirit of these instructions.
Ordinary work is no obstacle.
The ordinary rule of Scripture is that in the calling in which a man is called he should there remain with God. The blessed Lord was a carpenter until He was called to His fuller service. Paul was a tent-maker, and at times supplied his own needs... Christianity does not change the order of the world, even where sin has given rise to it. I could not make a business of selling gin.
- Called — God's call reaches people wherever they are. Becoming a Christian does not mean you must change your place in life.
- Owned — Christ's ownership already settles your standing. A slave becomes the Lord's freedman; a free man becomes Christ's servant.
- Remain — the rule is stability, not restlessness. Nothing chains you to your post, but the counsel is to stay.
- With God — the clause that limits the rule: any calling in which you cannot keep a good conscience before God must go.
- Glorify — the aim is not escape but glorifying God where He has put you. A carpenter's bench and a tent-maker's trade were no barrier.