1 Corinthians 7:21–22

1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7

Instructions with Regard to Marriage. 1 Cor. 7, 1–40.

A general application of these truths: V. 21. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it; but If thou mayest be made free, use it rather. V. 22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.

Paul illustrates this by a second example, bringing out especially the social distinction of the times: As a slave were you called? Do not let it worry you; but if you can become free, rather make use of that. The members of the Corinthian congregation that were slaves were naturally anxious to have their liberty, and the teaching of the Gospel was understood by them to favor this longing.

But a Christian slave was not to fear that he could not serve the Lord and be just as dear to Him in this state. The Lord having called him through the Gospel while he was in that social position would continue to show him His mercy even if he continued to be a slave for the rest of his life.

At the same time, however, the apostle conceded that a slave may well make use of the opportunity to become free, to accept such a gift of grace from the hands of God. In either event the social state makes no difference, as far as the Lord is concerned: For the man called in the Lord as a slave, while he holds the position, the station of a slave, is nevertheless the Lord's freeman; likewise the man that is called while he is free is Christ's servant.

This is a paradox, but a very beautiful way of describing the relation of both the bond and the free to the Lord. "Christ buys us from our old master, sin, and then sets us free; but a service is still due from the freedman to the patron."

The freedom spoken of here is, of course, spiritual freedom, according to which our liberation from the power of sin, by that token, gives us the strength to serve the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.

And here the apostle calls out an emphatic warning: With a price you were bought, 1 Pet. 1, 18. 19. The price of redemption which had to be laid down to deliver us from the slavery of sin and Satan was so immeasurably great that it must serve for all times to deter us from a very -foolish step, that of becoming servants of men, of selling ourselves into the vilest of slavery by abandoning the truth of Scriptures and permitting ourselves to be swayed and governed by the imagination and wisdom of men.

And the Corinthians could readily make the application of the word in their own case, namely, not to make themselves so dependent upon any man as to imagine that they were not really free, even though they had a master over them.

And so Paul once more sums up the thought of the entire section: Every one wherein he was called, brethren, in this let him remain before God. That relation, that station in life which a person occupied when he came to faith he may retain without one qualm for the rest of his days. Let it but be before God, in the sight of God, that the entire life be one of faith and of holy works, well-pleasing to the Lord.