Let Each One Remain

 

But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one; so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called. – I Corinthians 7:17-24

 

          Remember the glorious newness of conversion: what it meant for the Lord to take us and bring us out of darkness and into the light of his beloved son. And remember the way that grace, in the moment of our conversion, illuminated everything in the glorious newness of the kingdom of God. Darkness turned to light; death turned to life. The idolatry of self turned to the worship and adoration of the one true and living God. Remember the newness of the Lord's grace: the new song, the new heart, the new life that became ours, when Jesus called us to himself.

 

That glorious newness, what does it mean for the lives that we were living at the time when the Lord called us to himself? Should something change about our daily lives? Do we pursue new things? Do certain things need to end and other things begin, with this radical newness? What does that mean for our lives? What should change? What shouldn't?

 

Now, I repeat the same caution that I gave before. You can come to First Corinthians 7, and if you don't understand the context of the pastoral crisis at Corinth, you'll be at great risk of twisting what Paul says and coming up with something very far from what the Apostle is, in fact, saying. So recall the specific context in which these verses are given to the church. Recall that group of people in the church at Corinth that we called the super-spirituals.

 

The super-spirituals: for this group of people, the answer was that if you've come to the Lord Jesus Christ, everything needs to change about who you formerly were. Everything needs to change, because now as a Christian believer, you are above earthly matters. You are above them; you are beyond them. And so, in the whole of life there needs to be this great upheaval and everything needs to change. Remember how that was causing specific grief to the church in Corinth, when it came to matters of marriage.

 

Remember the slogan from the start of chapter seven that the super-spirituals are applying to the church. “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” They said that if you've come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you are above the physical, the carnal; there should be no more sexual relations among believers. Now, what did their teaching mean when applied to marriages in the church? It meant that for these super-spirituals, married couples should no longer have sexual relations. If someone was widowed or is a widower, they certainly should not think about getting remarried and entering back into a sexual relationship.

 

What does it mean if there are two people who do not believe, and one of them comes to the Lord Jesus and the other one doesn't? Again, for these super-spirituals, the answer was that the believing spouse should leave the unbelieving spouse lest the believer become contaminated. Imagine the great potential for confusion, chaos, and heartbreak that this notion caused in the church.

 

We dealt with that in our previous sermon. We saw how Paul patiently works through each one of these issues and sets the church in Corinth on the right path. That is, in the confines of marriage, sexual intimacy is a good and beautiful thing given to humanity as a gift.

 

Christians can rejoice in this, that if one spouse comes to the Lord and the other doesn't, don't rip apart the marriage! The believing spouse should love all the more in that relationship, so that their conduct might be a witness to bring the unbelieving spouse to believe in the Lord as well. But from all of that, Paul sees a deeper principle to deal with. From the specific context of marriage, he extrapolates a general principle that he now gives to all the churches. Did you notice that in verse 17? As he moves to this new section and gives this general principle, Paul doesn't want the church in Corinth to think that he's simply browbeating them or singling them out. “I ordain this for all the churches.” Brothers and sisters, this is extremely relevant for us because the apostle specifically says, Here is a principle for us to apply in every church and every generation till the Lord's return.

 

What is that general principle that Paul now gives to the Church? Remain in the state in which you are called.

 

We're going to say a lot about that principle, but there it is. Remain in the state in which you were called. It's important enough that Paul repeats it. In this short section, he repeats it three times: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. Verse 17: “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.” Verse 20: “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.” And verse 24 again: “Brethren let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called.”

 

Paul says, so I ordained in all the churches. What does that mean? Boiled down, it means that being a good Christian, being a Christ-honoring follower of the Way, does not primarily involve a change of circumstances but a change of heart. Remember that glorious newness that we talked about earlier that comes to us when the Lord calls us to himself; does it mean we throw all the circumstances of our lives into upheaval? It does not. At the core of this principle, Paul is telling us that being a good follower of Christ primarily involves not a change of circumstances, but rather a change of heart.

 

These aren't famous verses. I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who, in conversation about their favorite Bible passages, says, “Oh, boy you know, First Corinthians chapter 7, verses 17 through 24.” It's not a famous passage. But it should be, because this principle illuminates the whole of our lives in this passing age: what it truly means to walk faithfully before the face of God. It is a broad principle that the Holy Spirit led the apostle Paul to write that touches every aspect of our lives. Again, that being a faithful Christian believer is not primarily about changing your circumstances but about changing your heart. In other words, the calling of God's grace does not obliterate the natural order of things. But it calls us to be a Christian in those circumstances. If there's a specific moment in time that you can recall when the Lord called you to himself, remember what it was like when you woke up the next morning. I was a freshman in college. I woke up the next morning; and I was still a freshman in college. I still had a particular calling and a particular vocation. And the Lord's grace wasn't telling me to abandon college, but rather to see everything now illuminated by his grace. So everything on the one hand was new because I was seeing it in Christ, but the call was to remain and show that newness in the old context.

 

Now with the principal in front of us, look at Paul's supporting illustrations: one in verses 18 and 19 and then another in verses 21 and 22. Paul could have picked anything, right? Paul could have chosen a whole variety of illustrations. But he chooses possibly the two most controversial things that he could have chosen as illustrations; he grabs two rattlesnakes. In verses 18 and 19, he cites circumcision. Now, that may not seem like a big deal to you this morning. But imagine the radical nature of how these words would have hit the ears of Paul's original listeners: verse 19, “Circumcision is nothing.”

 

Remember, this is Paul, formerly Saul the Pharisee. Is that something that Saul the Pharisee would ever in a million years have allowed to slip past his lips? “Circumcision is nothing.” No! Before his conversion, for Saul, circumcision was everything. Circumcision was THE great marker between Jew and Gentile, the great dividing mark between those who worshiped the true God and the rest of humanity.

 

That's what Paul goes for here: what seemed to be the greatest religious barrier; what might be the most tempting thing to change. If you wanted to change your external circumstances in a religious way, what would that change look like? It would be like a man who was circumcised wanting to look uncircumcised. And it would look like an uncircumcised man wanting to become circumcised. In the historical record there were instances of both. Christians who were circumcised and wanted to distance themselves from their Jewish past sought to surgically hide the marks of circumcision. And on the other hand, there were those Christian converts who pressed closer in towards Judaism and submitted themselves to circumcision.

 

Here's what Paul says about this external circumstance. Were you circumcised when called? Don't try to be as if uncircumcised. Were you uncircumcised? Don't try to be as if you were circumcised. Why? Because circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing. Paul is not saying that under the Old Covenant, circumcision had no meaning. It had great meaning; it was an ordinance given by God to accomplish great things in the Mosaic Covenant as a sign of God's goodness to his people. But now that Christ has come such external markers are nothing. Where were you when you were called? Stay that way. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

 

Consider something Paul says in Romans chapter 2: “Circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law judge you who even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law.” Here's the principle in Romans that is united to what Paul is teaching to the church in Corinth: He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.

 

Paul is concerned that this obsession with external circumstances is blinding the people of God from seeing what is most important. Don't focus on your external circumstances. That's not what makes someone a good faithful follower of Jesus. It's attention, first and foremost, on the heart. Circumcision, as of the spirit, and the matter of the heart; the law written upon the heart by the finger of the Spirit. Which is why Paul also says, at the end of his epistle to the church in Galatia, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but rather a new creation.” All of this squabbling from these supposedly super-spiritual folk in the church at Corinth; ironically, all they're doing is miring themselves down in meaningless externals. They're pretending to be oh so spiritual by the things that they're commanding, when actually they're ignoring the Spirit and becoming enslaved to men, enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, and ignoring the glorious reality of new creation.

 

What's the second rattlesnake that Paul grabs by the tail? Verses 21 and 22. If circumcision would seem to be the greatest religious temptation for a change in external circumstance, what would be the greatest temptation to seek for a change in social circumstance?

 

In the ancient Greco-Roman world, it would be slavery.

 

Paul's remark in verse 21 is every bit as shocking as his comment in verse 19: “Were you called while a slave? Don't be concerned about it.”

 

Paul's point here is not some sort of blanket endorsements of slavery. It's important to point out that what we as modern Americans knew as the practice of the slave trade was vastly different than what Paul knew as the practice of slavery in the ancient Greco-Roman world. We're not going to talk at length about that now, but Paul is not giving a blanket endorsement of slavery.

 

For clarity's sake, here are a few points. The practice of slavery in the ancient Greco-Roman world was not the altogether brutal and sinful practice of man-stealing that was the West African slave trade that fed American slavery. At the time when Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, in cities such as Corinth and Rome and elsewhere in the Empire, slaves comprised up to one-third of the population. They would have been from all professions, from very menial laborers all the way up to lawyers and doctors. In many ways, slaves then had much more freedom and stability than a lot of free people do in our society today.

 

Paul's point in invoking slavery here is to emphasize how truly he believes the principle that he's giving to the churches. That being a faithful Christian is not first and foremost a matter of external circumstances, but a matter of the heart. Not changing your state of life externally but changing your heart in submission to the Spirit and in reliance on his grace.

 

Paul chooses these two examples because he wants to make the most powerful greater-argument-to-the-lesser-argument that he can. If circumcision is nothing, if slavery is not something to be concerned with, then brothers and sisters, look at us. Look at us whining and complaining. Oh, if only our external circumstances were different, we'd be better Christians, we'd be more faithful!

 

No, Paul says. Faithfully following Jesus is not a matter of changing your externals, but for looking to the heart, submitting it to the Lord Jesus, taking up your cross and following him.

 

In other words, if it is true for the slave, that his faithfulness doesn't hinge on whether or not he has freedom, then it's true for all of us. Notice what Paul says there. He says, don't be concerned about it, but listen, if the opportunity comes up and you can be free, take it. But he continues in verse 22 with this second illustration. How can he say this? On what basis can Paul say something so seemingly radical, and so against... I mean, imagine being a slave and sitting there, hearing Paul tell you: “Are you a slave? Don't be concerned about it.” Well, Paul, how? How is such a thing possible?

 

He tells us in verse 22. “He who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave.” These things are possible because the Lord Jesus Christ has made all things new.

 

What is true in society is not necessarily the case at all when we look at the ways of the kingdom of God. Think about the teaching of our Savior: “For many who are first shall be last, and many who are last shall be first in the kingdom of my father.”

 

There is very often a great and mighty reversion principle in the kingdom. Where the lowliest slave downtrodden by all parts of society is in fact, the Lord's freedman, beloved by the Son of God; kept in the palm of his hand and reserved for great glory on the last great day. While meanwhile the greatest emperor on earth arrayed in the finest of everything that wealth and affluence has to offer will be trodden under foot by the King of kings when he comes to judge the living and the dead.

 

Again, this is something that Paul glories in when he writes to the churches. Galatians 3:26-29, NKJV: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

 

The world is obsessed with these oppositions, right? How do we find peace among different ethnicities, such as Jew and Greek? How do we find peace and equality among different economic statuses such as slave and free? How do we find equality between the sexes, male and female? The world has its own answers. But every single one of them leads to the same warmed-over tyranny of sin, and leads only to greater misery, greater enslavement, and more death.

 

The Christian has – and the Christian alone has – true peace. When it comes to Jew and Gentile, what does Paul say to the church in Ephesus? There is now one new man created out of the two. How? Through the blood of the cross, for he himself is our peace. All the attempts at peace and reconciliation in this passing age may result in temporary moments of less violence, but they will not last because they do not seek peace in the only one in whom it is to be found: Christ and Christ Jesus alone.

 

We have circumcision and slavery as the two illustrations that Paul places before us to illuminate the principle. And now we need to qualify the principle. Not water it down but to acknowledge that it has to be read in harmony with the rest of scripture.

 

And we're going to do this on another occasion as well. But to begin, if you are converted and are in a sinful situation, the Lord is not saying that you should stay in that situation. An example would be if you were a professional gambler or if you were a prostitute. Paul is not saying remain as you are if you are called while in that type of condition. So in other words, if we are called and the Lord brings to us a clear revelation of how we are involved in sin, we need to change. There needs to be a change in that situation.

 

But all other things being equal, if you're not involved in sin in your station of life, then your greatest spiritual need is not a change in your circumstances, but again, a change of heart. This is so useful to us because it comes to us in an American context where a focus on external circumstances is nearly all that we hear about in the culture all around us. I want us to talk briefly about two traps in modern American culture that Paul's teaching helps us avoid.

 

The first is the trap of the American Dream. That's what we're going to call it for now, the trap of the American Dream. We praise God that we live in a country that affords us so much opportunity to take care of ourselves, our families, our loved ones, to have the freedoms that we have. But there's a subtext, right? If you're not moving up that ladder, what are you really? What worth do you have if you're not on that upward moving escalator of more: more prosperity, more money, more stuff, more influence. You know, we even have phrases for it, right? Climb the corporate ladder; keep up with the Joneses.

 

Paul's principle, “Remain in the state in which you are called,” frees us from the trap of the American Dream that enslaves people to finding their self-worth, their value, their identity in external circumstances. For the world, what defines who they are? As you look across American society how do people define themselves? By their station in life.

 

But not so in Christ. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave. Brothers and sisters, we were bought with a price. We were bought with a price, we dare not give ourselves back to the slavery that comes with this myopic focus on external circumstances. Finding our worth and our identity in what we do, what we have, as opposed to who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This brings us to a second qualification of the principle. Does the principle, “Remain in the state in which you are called,” mean we should strive for nothing? Is Paul telling us, don't try to advance your station in life at all ever for any reason?

 

That is, of course, not at all what he is saying. Paul is not saying, don't ever change. Paul is saying, don't look to your circumstances as the source of your identity, or your worth, or your happiness. Those things are to be found in Christ. Do you want to get a promotion at work? Pursue it, commit it to the Lord, work hard, but be happy with whatever he brings. Rest in him.

 

We read from Jeremiah 31. What is the satisfaction of our souls? It is his goodness. Seek not the satisfaction of your soul in external circumstances. Seek it in the goodness of the Lord.

 

Paul is not saying don't pursue advancement; he is saying do so carefully, keeping watch over your heart. Never confuse a change in external circumstances with what Christ truly calls his people to, which is a change of heart.

 

So we have the trap of the American Dream and secondly, now the trap of the victim mentality. You know, there's two ways that this enslavement can go. If you are focused on externals, you can be enslaved to the upward pull of more more more. What happens if you're obsessed with externals, but you don't get to the next “more”? There's another trap waiting for you, and it's the trap of the victim mentality. As a society we are quite addicted to it. Are you miserable? Are you downtrodden? Are you unhappy? Are you unsuccessful? Are you unhealthy? Don't worry, it's someone else's fault. It's not you. It's your circumstances.

 

This whole other trap is waiting for us on the other side of the obsession with externals, that tells us Don't. You don't have to attend to your own heart, because your problems involve your circumstances. It's your job, it's your marriage. It's your upbringing. There are many ways this comes across and is pitched to us. Just so long as you don't actually have to look at yourself, examine your own heart, and bring it before the Lord to see the rot that lies within.

 

Often this type of observation can be associated with a political position. But focus that entirely misses the point. This is, in fact, a nonpartisan addiction in American society. Conservatives and liberals both are enslaved to a victim mentality. The difference is just who they're blaming for their problems. It's why there's a twenty six point two billion dollar counseling industry in the United States of America. How is there a $26,200,000,000 counseling industry, and we're just getting more miserable and more violent as a society?

 

It's because we're not addressing the heart. It's all about just shuffling the same miserable people around into different circumstances, and exacerbating problems and not healing them. If we're to talk about Christian Counseling, this practice must be at the heart of the difference with secular counseling: that Christian Counseling looks not to a change simply of external circumstances but of the heart. That it brings people before the mirror of God's word and says, you need to look at the condition of your heart and where there is sin, you need to bring it to the Lord and repent of it and turn from it.

 

There's the trap of the American Dream on the one side. There's the trap of the victim mentality on the other. And bringing us back, brothers and sisters – there's the beauty of what the Lord calls us to as Christian believers, which is a focus, not on external circumstances, but on the heart.

 

As we close, listen, this is not an easy thing. This is why this passage is so important. And so relevant to where the churches in modern society are. It's not easy because we hear competing voices from every angle. The moment we step out into the world, we are being shouted at with a diametrically opposed message.

 

As we close I have three encouragements.

 

First encouragement: God has called you. We see that throughout this passage, in nearly every verse: God has called you. In the midst of whatever your circumstances of life were, God reached down with the mighty arm of his grace and he grabbed hold of you, and he made you new. He made you a new man, a new woman in Christ Jesus. And that is who you are. He has grabbed hold of you and he will not let you go. And nothing will snatch you from his hand; he has called you. Your whole spirit, soul, and body will be kept blameless on the day of Christ Jesus because he who called you is faithful; he will surely do it.

 

Secondly, not only has God called you in his grace but he has put you exactly where he wants you to be. Did you catch that in verse 17? The very first words of our passage, “But as God has distributed to each one.” Our position in life is a matter of God's wise and gracious Providence. He didn't make a mistake in putting you where you are. He put you where you are for a reason: to walk faithfully before him in a way that no one else could, because no one else has been put in exactly the place in which he has put you. It's not an accident where you are; not a fluke. It's not a mistake, for God has distributed to each one. He has called you and he has placed you. And he has done both of these things not for your harm, but for your good and for his glory. He has called you. He has placed you.

 

And lastly, brothers and sisters, he is with you. Look at verse 24. See those two words: with God. Just two words, but they change everything. “Brethren let each one remain with God.” He has called you; he has placed you; but he hasn't done these things just to leave you on your own and say, “I hope it works out; see you on the other side!” He has called us, he has placed us, and he is with us. Whatever your circumstances, whatever challenges they involve. Whatever difficulties. Whatever sufferings – God is with you.

 

You can think of the way in which Jesus spoke to his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” And, of course, Jesus was speaking there of the great and coming day of Pentecost, when having been exalted to the right hand of God, he would pour out his Spirit on his church. This with us, brothers and sisters, is a trinitarian “with us.” We have a father in Heaven who has called us and placed us. We have a Savior who has redeemed us by his blood and who is not far from us, but who is with us and who is in us by the Spirit whom he has poured into our hearts.

 

“I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” And think of the beautiful and glorious and comforting way in which Jesus prays for us, John 17. “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.” That is our Savior's prayer and his desire for us. And he goes on, “Father, I desire that those whom you have given to me should be with me where I am.” God has called you, God has placed you, and God is with you to this beautiful end: that when we put off these mortal bodies and enter into his presence, we should see the glory of our Savior. That when our resurrection bodies are called out of the grave by his command, that we should see him as he is, in the glory that he had with his father from before the foundation of the world. In your difficulty, in your suffering, in this present life, yes, our external circumstances bring much affliction, but God has called you. God has placed you. And God is with you.

– Alex Tabaka