18Christians and Social  Revolution (7:17-24)

Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches. Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not 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. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each man remain with God in that condition in which he was called. (7:17-24)

Much has been said and written about the social role and responsibility of the church. Periodically throughout church history, and strongly in our own day, people have claimed that Christianity should be an agent of external social reform, even of revolution if necessary.

Most sensitive believers have wondered how and to what extent they should be involved, if at all, in promoting social, economic, and political change. All human institutions and forms of government are imperfect; some are obviously corrupt, cruel, and unjust. But what are Christians, individually or collectively, to do about wrongs and abuses in civil systems and social practices?

First Corinthians 7:17-24 is not a full treatise on that subject, but it plainly teaches the basic principle by which Christians should look at and respond to the civil and social conditions in which they live. The principle is this: Christians should willingly accept the situation into which God has placed them and be content to serve Him there. It is a principle against which human nature rebels, and Paul states it three times in these 8 verses, so that his readers could not miss his point. We should not be preoccupied with changing our outward circumstances.

THE PRINCIPLE STATED

Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches. Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. (7:17-19)

Christians individually and corporately are to minister in many ways, including the practical, material ways of feeding the hungry, healing the sick and injured, and other such services. Christianity has far and away been the leader in building hospitals and orphanages, in visiting prisoners, in helping the poor, and in ministering in countless other ways that are considered social services. But those are ministries Christians do as Christians, not services that they persuade society to perform.

Christ made it clear that He did not come to instigate an external social revolution, as many Jews of His days thought the Messiah would do. Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18:36). Christ’s mission was “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and that is the mission of His church. When Christianity becomes closely identified with a social movement, the message of the gospel is in danger of being lost.

When it is faithfully followed, however, biblical Christianity cannot help having radical effects on every person, institution, and practice around it. But the primary purpose of the gospel is to change people, not change society. Its focus is on inward change, not outward. We should be satisfied to be where God has put us, to accept what the Lord has assigned us, and to be faithful in whatever condition God has called us.

Obviously the apostle is not telling believers to stay in occupations, professions, or habits that are inherently immoral or illegal. A thief was not to keep stealing, a temple priestess was not to continue in prostitution, or a drunkard was not to keep getting drunk. Everything sinful is to be forsaken. The issue has to do with believers being content in the social conditions and situations they are in when saved.

Several areas of discontent were prevalent in the Corinthian church. Some believers wanted to change their marital status—from single to married, from married to single, or from an unbelieving partner to a believing one. Some were slaves and wanted to be free. They had misinterpreted, and often abused, the truth of Christian freedom—taking it to mean freedom to do as they pleased, instead of freedom to do as God pleased.

The unity of the church at Corinth was seriously fractured. Not only were there numerous parties and factions, but some groups were encouraging those with the gift of celibacy to get married, while other groups were encouraging those who were married to become celibate. Slaves were chafing under their bondage and were trying to find spiritual justification for demanding freedom. Although the gospel is the antithesis of the standards and values of the world, it does not disdain or seek to destroy governments, societies, or families. Rather where the gospel is believed and obeyed, some of the most obvious by-products are better government, better societies, and better families.

But Christians can be Christians in a dictatorship, a democracy, or even under anarchy. We can be Christians whether we are man, woman, child, married, single, divorced, Jew, Gentile, slave, or free. We can be Christians in Russia or the United States, in Cuba or China, in France or Japan. Whatever we are and wherever we are, we can be Christians.

God does not justify corrupt governments or immoral societies, and they will be judged in His time and in His way. But the purpose of the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ is not to revolutionize social institutions but to revolutionize hearts. The gospel is directed at the human heart, not at human society. Because faithful Christians are better husbands or wives, better friends, better slaves or masters, better sons or daughters, and better citizens, they cannot help contributing to better societies. But using natural means to try to effect a better society is not their ministry.

The gospel can be planted and take root wherever there is a person to hear and accept it, even in countries or in families that are pagan, atheistic, humanistic, and avowedly anti-Christian. As the saying goes, we should bloom where we are planted. Where the Lord has assigned and where God has called is where we should walk.

The principle is universal. It was not given only to the divided, contentious, and immature Corinthians, but to all the churches. God’s primary purpose for His church in every nation is for them to evangelize, to change the world through spiritual regeneration, not social revolution.

The first illustration Paul gives of that general principle has to do with identity as Jew or Gentile. Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. In the epistles, being called by God (cf. v 17) always refers to an effectual call to salvation. When a Jew is saved, he should not try to become like a Gentile.

This had a very specific application. Circumcision was an embarrassment in the Roman world. According to the Maccabees, some Jewish men “made themselves uncircumcised.” Josephus tells us that during the Greek rule of the eastern Mediterranean several centuries before Christ, some Jewish men who wanted to be accepted into Greek society had surgery performed to make themselves appear uncircumcised when they bathed or exercised at the gymnasiums. They literally became uncircumcised surgically. The Roman encyclopedist Celsus, in the first century A.D., wrote a detailed description of the surgical procedure for decircumcision (De Medicina VII. 25).

The practice was so common that considerable rabbinic literature addressed the problem (e.g., Aboth 3:11; Jerushalmi Peah 1 and 16b; Lamentations Rabbah 1:20). Jews who had such surgery were referred to as epispatics, a name taken from the euphemistic term epispaomai, meaning “to draw over,” or “to pull towards.” That is the very term Paul uses here for uncircumcised. Perhaps some Jewish Christians thought that was a way to demonstrate their break with Judaism.

The apostle’s meaning here can also be figurative. Circumcised and uncircumcised were commonly used to represent Jew and Gentile, respectively. By extension, the terms may even have related to women, for whom literal circumcision obviously does not apply. And the idea could also be that, when they become Christians, Jews are not to give up their Jewishness and try to appear like Gentiles. Many religious beliefs must be changed, but not racial or cultural identity as Jews.

The same principle applies to Gentiles. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let Him not be circumcised. Gentiles who become Christians are not to become like Jews.

The problem concerning circumcision was not as serious in Corinth as it was in Galatia, where Judaizers taught that circumcision was necessary for salvation (Gal. 5:2-3). In Corinth the practice may have been viewed as a mark of special dedication and a means of special blessing. But circumcision is not necessary either for salvation or for blessing. It has no spiritual significance or value for Christians at all. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing.

For Jews to want to appear as Gentiles or for Gentiles to subscribe to things unique to Jews was both spiritually and practically wrong. It was spiritually wrong because it added an outward form to the gospel that the Lord does not require and that has no spiritual merit or meaning. It was practically wrong because it unnecessarily separated believers from their families and friends and made witnessing to them much more difficult.

What matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. Obedience is the only mark of faithfulness the Lord recognizes. Obedience is sometimes costly, but it is always possible. We can be obedient anywhere and in any circumstance. The issue is internal.

THE PRINCIPLE REPEATED

Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not 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. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each man remain with God in that condition in which he was called. (7:20-24)

For the second time Paul states the principle of being content to stay in the condition we were in when saved, whether it is racial or social. The focus of a Christian’s concern should be on divinely supernatural things.

Another illustration is given, this time concerning slaves. Paul’s point is not to approve of slavery or to suggest that it is as good a condition to live under as freedom. His point is that, if a person is a slave, he is still able to live a Christian life. He is every bit as able to obey and serve Christ in slavery as in freedom. No circumstance, no matter how terrible, painful, or unjust, can keep us from being in every sense a Christian.

A slave can, in fact, serve Christ through his slavery. Paul wrote the Ephesians,

Paul consistently taught that principle. Slaves were to serve their masters honestly and sincerely, “as for the Lord rather than for men” (Col. 3:23). Slaves had a unique opportunity to testify for the Lord. They were to show their human masters that they worked hard and honestly not because they were forced to but because they wanted to, out of love for and obedience to their true Lord and Master. They could demonstrate true contentment and peace in the midst of slavery, thus showing the inner provision of salvation.

The book of Philemon centers around the runaway slave Onesimus, whom Paul had led to Christ while in prison (v 10). As it happens, Onesimus’s owner, Philemon, was a Christian. He was Paul’s “beloved brother and fellow worker,” and the church in Colossae met in his house (w 1-2). The apostle makes a strong personal and spiritual appeal for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and to accept him back, not just as a slave but as a Christian brother (v 16). Yet, as embarrassing as it has been to some Christian activists, Paul did not condemn slavery or question Philemon’s legal rights over his slave. He did not ask for social equality for Onesimus. In fact, he even used slavery as an analogy for the believer’s walk with God.

In the Roman empire of Paul’s time, perhaps fifty percent of the population were slaves. But unlike most slaves throughout history, the slave of that day often was better educated, more skilled, and more literate and cultured than the average free person. A large percentage of the doctors, teachers, accountants, and other professionals were slaves. Many of them lived in relative ease and were treated with respect. Others, of course, lived in constant poverty and humiliation under cruel and merciless owners.

Paul made no distinction. Any slave, in any circumstance, was to be willing to remain as he was. Only sin can keep us from obeying and serving the Lord; circumstance cannot. Therefore if we are in a difficult, uncomfortable, and restricting situation, we should not worry about it, but should determine to be faithful as long as the Lord leaves us there.

Even having affirmed that principle, Paul makes it clear that he did not consider slavery to be the most desirable state. But if you are able also to become free, rather do that. Freedom is immeasurably better than slavery, and a Christian is not more spiritual for staying in slavery. If he has opportunity to become free, as did many slaves in New Testament times, a believer should take advantage of it. Paul was content to be in jail and to serve the Lord as long as he was jailed. He carried on much of his ministry from a jail cell. But when he was freed he left jail. If a Christian slave has the opportunity to become free, he should rather do that.

Although the gospel does not approve of removing slavery by social revolution, the gospel throughout history has brought the freedom of more slaves than any human philosophy, movement, or political system. In past times, some Christians, unfortunately, have supported and tried to justify slavery. But the Bible does not; and where Christians are faithful to Scripture, slavery cannot flourish.

Even while he is a slave, a Christian is the Lord’s freedman. No bondage is as terrible or enslaving as that from which Christ redeems us. In Him we are freed from sin, from Satan, from judgment and condemnation, from hell, and from the curse of the Law From the slavery that really matters, every Christian has already been delivered. In Christ we have the greatest, most complete, and most glorious freedom possible. A person who is the Lord’s freedman, and who will remain so throughout all eternity, should not be overly concerned about remaining in human bondage for a few years.

Lest Christians who were physically free should gloat, thinking they were more favored by God than slaves or that their freedom meant license to do as they pleased, Paul reminds them, likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. Our freedom in Christ is not to sin but from sin, not freedom to do our own will but freedom to do His will. In Christ we are “freed from sin and enslaved to God” (Rom. 6:22).

When we focus on our spiritual freedom and our slavery in God, our freedom or slavery among men is not all-important, and we can look at it in the right perspective and live in it in the right attitude. It does not matter whether we are physically bound or free, only that we are both spiritually bound and free—in the wonderful paradox of the gospel.

Because we have been bought with a price, our great concern, whether we are free or in bondage, should be that we do not allow ourselves to become slaves of men. Here Paul does not mean physical slavery but spiritual slavery. He is speaking of becoming slaves of the ways of men, the ways of the world, the ways of the flesh. That is the slavery into which many of the Corinthian believers had fallen, the slavery that caused their divisions and strife and their immaturity and immorality.

We have been bought with the inestimable price of the “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19). We have been bought by God and we belong to God. We must never become the moral and spiritual slaves of men, living by their standards and seeking to please them.

For a third time Paul gives the principle: Brethren, let each man remain with God in that condition in which he was called. However it is that we have been saved (called), and in whatever condition we now are in, we should be willing to remain. God allows us to be where we are and to stay where we are for a purpose. Conversion is not the signal for a person to leave his social condition, his marriage or his singleness, his human master, or his other circumstances. We are to leave sin and anything that encourages sin; but otherwise we are to stay where we are until God moves us.