Dear friends,
As we work through 1 Corinthians 7, we come to a paragraph that seems to have nothing to do with glorifying God with your body in love, sex, or marriage. Suddenly, there is a paragraph about slavery and circumcision. But this is the most important passage in the chapter, for it is simply using these topics to discuss contentment, which is the key to love, sex, and marriage.
I hope you enjoy this discussion. Please remember that Two Ways News is provided free of charge by the generosity of friends. If you would like to become one of our generous friends, at the end of the transcript are details regarding how you could contribute.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip Jensen: The King’s Birthday long weekend is coming around soon, on the second weekend in June. As usual, we will be holding our conference at Moore College on the afternoon of Monday 8th. This year, we will be looking at the topic of ‘Prophecy Today’. This is a great topic which teaches us how God relates to us by his Word.
Are there prophets today?
Why should we seek to prophesy?
What is it to prophesy?
If prophecy is preaching, should women preach?
If prophecy is not preaching, what is it?
Friends, we will be pursuing many questions as we explore this topic.
Registrations are now open – go to phillipjensen.com and register now; we reserve seats in the hall by registration number. For those living outside of Sydney we have a live stream you can register for, so why not get a group to come and watch with you?
Today we are continuing our studies of 1 Corinthians 7, focusing this time on contentment. Peter, are you a contented person?
Peter Jensen: I would say that I’d be in an awful mood if I wasn’t a contented person. We are living through one of the wealthiest, and in a sense most peaceful times (in the sense that neither of us have ever had to go to war), in a magnificent city, in a nation with free speech and democracy, where it’s easy to get the most wonderful medical help if you need it. Let me add the personal blessings of knowing Jesus, of Christian fellowship, of a happy and long-lasting marriage, and much more. For me to be discontented, therefore, would mean that I am not grateful for my many blessings.
Phillip: The answer you’ve given touches on being correct. You say your contentment is in the circumstances of your life, but can you be content and not have such circumstances? Or can you be discontent even when you have all things going for you? Paul says that he had to learn to be content not only in the hard times, but also in prosperity. So you’ve had a very prosperous life, but you still need to learn to be content.
This week’s passage in 1 Corinthians 7 is in the context of marriage and sex, as the whole of chapter 7 is, but it talks specifically about contentment.
Peter: 1 Corinthians 7:17–24
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
The passage may strike us as being a bit odd in the context of chapter 7, speaking as it does of contentment, circumcision, slavery and such. After all, the whole passage begins with Paul asking the Corinthians, “Is it good for a man not to touch a woman?” So far it has developed as a response to this, dealing with marriage, separation, and divorce. But it’s not untypical of Paul to apply gospel truths to what he’s saying. For example, chapter 12 is about the gifts of God and the one body of Christ. Chapter 13 seems strangely out of place in talking about love. But as you read through chapters 12, 13, and 14, you find that it’s not out of place, for it makes perfect sense to have the great love chapter in the midst of this other discussion.
You’ve pinpointed the word ‘calling’ as being key to this passage. Can you explain this?
Phillip: It’s not a word commonly used by Paul, but it occurs about 5 or 6 times in this paragraph. Paul is using the word ‘calling’ possibly in 2 different senses, though the one we use very frequently is the minor one rather than the major one. That is, since the time of Luther we’ve been using the word ‘calling’ to refer to one’s vocation in life. Your calling could be that you’re a nurse or a mechanic, a shop owner or a professional, or a pastor; yet the emphasis of Luther was to bring the vocation of everyday life back into the forefront of Christian living, rather than requiring you to go into a monastery in order to actually be a Christian. That’s the emphasis that we’ve carried in our Christian community for the last 500 years. It possibly means a calling in the sense of verse 17, “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him”; or verse 20, “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.”
But in verse 24, Paul uses the word ‘calling’ to refer to our conversion, our calling to Christ. The opening of the letter back in 1 Corinthians 1:2 reads, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.” Likewise, verse 1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son.” Throughout this passage, he keeps talking about “the moment of your calling”, meaning the calling into the kingdom, the summons to belong by the power of God’s Spirit into new birth. I don’t want to deny the sovereignty of God over the rest of our lives, but if we were living in the 15th century, our calling would have been for us to be printers, because we are the sons of a printer. Back then, the calling was something that was given to you by your circumstances in life. It’s right to recognise that God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives: our family, our nation, the suburbs we grew up in, the education we’ve received, and the jobs that we are doing. But what Paul is speaking about here is the calling of the gospel.
Peter: So we’ve been called by God. We have been assigned to be his, and we’re to walk in that way. It’s the new creature, the new creation, then conversion and justification and sanctification. It’s the walk of the new creation coming out of this call by God, through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. So it strikes me that Ephesians 2 speaks of, if you like, the power of the call. Ephesians 2:8–10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
But back to the question, why have you picked ‘calling’ as being key to the 1 Corinthians 7 passage?
Phillip: We’ll come to that in a moment, but in the meantime, I would like to ask: why do you think he mentioned circumcision and slavery, and what is he saying about it?
Peter: That’s interesting too, because these don’t seem to be the issues that the Corinthians were raising. Presumably he’s using these subjects as illustrations to lay the foundation of what he wants to say about marriage and sex.
Phillip: He does talk about circumcision and slavery elsewhere, for example in Galatians. It’s a big issue for him, but this is the only reference to it in 1 Corinthians.
Peter: My guess is that he’s mentioned these issues, which are fairly big in his mind, so they won’t divert people into fresh arguments. By doing so, he makes some important points about both topics for ongoing Christian understanding. The key to both is that you don’t have to change your situation in life to be a full-on, true, born-again, new-creation Christian. In the case of circumcision, he is referring, as we know from elsewhere, to a controversial topic amongst Christian Jews: basically, the question was, “To what extent must I remain Jewish, and should Gentile Jews join us as Christian Jews through circumcision?” His answer brilliantly bypasses the controversy; namely, he tells them not to make an issue of this. It’s no longer important. The Old Testament’s ceremonial legal requirements are now fulfilled in Christ and we are free from them to keep the real heart of the law: that is, the commandments to love God and to love your neighbour.
Phillip: The change in situation once you become a Christian is not in being circumcised, but, as Paul writes, in being content, whether you’re circumcised or not.
The circumcision symbolised that you were under the law, but the symbol of being under the law is not the same as truly being under the law. It’s like the symbol of wearing an Oxford University t-shirt. It doesn’t necessarily mean you studied at Oxford; it can mean your auntie was a tourist who travelled through Oxford and brought one home for you.
Peter: I’m reminded that even in the Old Testament itself, circumcision was used as a way of talking about true repentance. That is to say, it is an outward sign which has now passed away, but it represents a deep inner truth which must remain.
Phillip: The case of slavery is slightly different though. Both slavery and circumcision have a permanence to them, though a slave could be set free. But Paul is now saying that, just as in Christ, the circumcised and the uncircumcised can now be under the law—and if you are in slavery, you are under freedom. You’re set free in Christ, even though you are a slave, because Christ himself became your slave for your salvation’s sake. He enslaved himself that you could be free. So you seek to please him now in all things, whether you’re a slave or free, whether you’re circumcised or not.
See, it’s interesting that he says of this freedom that where possible, you should take it, because slavery was a bad thing. Paul talks in 1 Timothy 5 about the yoke of slavery. There’s no joy in being poor, nor is there joy in being a slave. These are not good circumstances of life, yet you can be poor and content as a Christian. Likewise, you can be a slave and be content as a Christian. So the Lord is now the real person whom you seek to live under. If you’re free, you’re still a slave of Christ; if you’re a slave, you’re a free man in Christ. Our circumstances in this world remain the same, but spiritually and personally, we have been radically changed. The free man has now become a slave; the slave has now become free. Our contentment is found in our situation in the kingdom of God, which enables us to cope with both freedom and slavery.
We do not use our freedom to indulge the flesh, as Paul would put it in Galatians 5. We now use our freedom to enslave ourselves to Christ. But he does say that slavery is a bad thing, and he warns us never to enslave ourselves to a human. If you’ve got a chance to free yourself, take it, and do not put yourself into the position of becoming a slave to someone.
Peter: I love the gospel. The more you think about it, you realise that it is a summons to be the people, the men and women that God intended us to be, which is where our real freedom is to be found. It’s to be found in our slavery to Christ.
You used the word ‘content’, which takes us back to my question from the beginning of our conversation. Is Philippians 4:11–13 close to what Paul means here by ‘content’? Philippians 4:11–13
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
I take it that this is what you mean by ‘contentment’.
Phillip: That’s what Paul means by ‘contentment’. It’s your attitude to the circumstances of life. It’s easy to see why someone who is poor or enslaved needs an attitudinal change to be content because their situation is one of disappointment, difficulty and hardship. But on the other side, the very rich are not content in their hearts and in their minds. They’re never satisfied with what they are doing; we know they are greatly disillusioned. Australians are not content people.
Peter: This reminds me of a silly commercial that’s on at the moment about retirement. It talks about how for your whole life, you go to work and get paid, over and over again. Then one day, you don’t go to work, but you still get paid. That is when you have entered the glorious state of retirement. It’s obvious they’ve never heard about arthritis. It’s so absurd, you’re right; contentment is elusive if you’re relying upon the world around you, your wealth and so forth.
Phillip: We have something bigger than the world around us.
Peter: Indeed, and we are still so thankful to God for the world.
So you’re saying that the secret of contentment is our relationship to Jesus, and that enables us, as Paul says, to do all things necessary. He is talking from his own experience, which is vast. He’s known abundance, he’s known poverty, prison, beating, and who knows what else.
Phillip: Where you were when you were called, stay there. You don’t have to change your circumstances in life to find contentment.
Peter: Back to the first question then: where did this passage come from? Why is it here in the middle of this discussion about sex, marriage and all the rest?
Phillip: That is because he is dealing with the questions that people are asking. 1 Corinthians 7:1 reads, “Now, concerning the matters about which you wrote,” which indicates that he is directly addressing people’s questions. He’s gathered up a series of matters about marriage and about sex, and so in verses 1–7, he talks about sexual relationships within marriage. His message is that you don’t need to change your situation to live in contentment in Christ. If you are widowed or unmarried, stay as you are.
Mind you, if you are now living in sexual immorality, you should fix that by getting married. Likewise, if you are already married, you should remain together. If you can’t live with each other, by all means be separate. But if you can’t be separate, come back together again, because your marriage is the place in which you exist as Christian people.
If you are married to a non-Christian, you should not free yourself from the non-Christian. But if the non-Christian wishes to leave, let them go. You can’t save them by hanging on to them. But if they’re willing to live with you, stay married to them because, as you were when you were called, so remain in that place and find your contentment in the gospel, in your changed life, rather than in the circumstances of life.
That’s going to take us on to what the rest of the chapter is about, because the next question that he answers is about what to do if you’re betrothed to someone.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links & Recommendations
For more on this topic, check out this talk entitled Sexual Contentment.
Freely available, supported by generosity.
If you enjoy Two Ways News, why not lend us a hand? Consider joining our Supporters Club—friends who make it possible for us to keep producing this article/podcast.
To join the Supporters Club, follow the link below to the ‘subscribe’ page. You’ll see that there’s:
a number of ‘paid options’. To join the Supporters Club take out one of the paid ‘subscription plans’ and know we are deeply grateful for your support!
also the free option (on the far right hand side)
