Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Remain in the Calling You Were Called In
1 Corinthians 7:17-24
17 Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies. · WEB
The chapter's governing principle, stated three times and tested against the two great social divisions of the ancient world — circumcision and slavery.
Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies 1 Corinthians 7:17.
The principle behind everything in the chapter, and Paul notes that it is not a local rule. Two ideas are joined: what a person has been distributed — their circumstances — and their calling. Conversion does not require a change of station; it requires that the station be occupied differently.
Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised 1 Corinthians 7:18.
The first test case is the great religious divide of the age, and the ruling is symmetrical: nobody should try to change categories. This is the same apostle who fought hard against circumcision being imposed on Gentile converts Galatians 5:2 Galatians 5:6 — and the consistency is in the reason, stated next.
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping God's commandments 1 Corinthians 7:19.
Both sides of the argument are dismissed in one clause. The marker is nothing, in either direction, and what replaces it is not a further marker but a life: keeping God's commandments. A congregation preoccupied with categories and party badges 1 Corinthians 1:12 is told that the thing that counts is obedience, which no one can wear.
Were you called being a bondservant? Don't let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it 1 Corinthians 7:21.
The second test case is slavery, and a large part of this congregation would have been affected — the letter assumes both slaves and free among its readers 1 Corinthians 12:13. The instruction has two halves and both matter. A believing slave's standing before God is not diminished by his condition, so he need not be troubled about it; and freedom, if it becomes available, is to be taken. Nothing here commends the institution or counsels resignation to it. What it refuses is the idea that a slave must be freed before he can serve God fully.
For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord's free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ's bondservant 1 Corinthians 7:22.
The sentence crosses the two conditions over, and it is the most subversive line in the chapter. Each man is given the other's title. The slave is free; the free man is a slave. Neither can look at the other and see a difference that matters, which does more damage to the social hierarchy than a rule about manumission would.
You were bought with a price. Don't become bondservants of men 1 Corinthians 7:23.
The purchase language from the previous chapter 1 Corinthians 6:20, applied now to social standing rather than to sexual conduct. Someone already owned cannot be at anyone else's disposal in the way that matters — and the warning is addressed to everyone, since a free man can be enslaved to other men's opinions as thoroughly as any household servant. Then the principle a third time: let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God 1 Corinthians 7:24. The last two words carry the weight. Not stay put, but stay there with God.
held with reason What this mark means