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.