What Need Not Change as a Believer

Transcript

GR 1320
03-26-06
What Need not Change as a Believer
1 Corinthians 7:17-24
Gil Rugh

Turn to 1 Corinthians 7 in your Bibles. Because of the weather some of you were not able to be here last week and let me encourage you to get the tape. We talked about the matter of marriage, we didn't move on in 1 Corinthians 7, but we talked about matters of the husband's responsibility and the wife's responsibility. And these are foundational matters for having the marriage that God intends us to have, and enjoying the fullness of God's blessing in our marriage. There was a question that came out of that study and I just want to mention it at the start, regarding how do you face divorce when perhaps you are in a situation of spousal abuse. And most often this would pertain to women. You know it's true in the Bible no matter whether we're talking about slaves and masters, husbands and wives, and so on, those in the position of submission are generally in the more difficult position, and they have to be careful that they function biblically and godly. Now those in the leadership roles, masters or husbands or government or whatever have responsibilities and those are addressed. But it is true, for example a wife with a husband who is abusive as we would say. I think we need to be careful here.

Come over to 1 Peter, and we talked about this passage in our previous study. But 1 Peter 3, you'll note the context and I remind you that the subject matter begins in 1 Peter 2:13, submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Then he starts out with human government, he moves to slaves and masters, then wives and husbands. And in this context he says at the end of verse 20, if when you do what is right and suffer for it and you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. And Christ is the example of one who suffered unjustly. And he moves into then, in the same way you wives also, perhaps you're living with an unbelieving husband and they could be very abusive in biblical times, not new to today. Down in verse 6, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. I take it a wife in a difficult situation with a husband that perhaps does not treat her as a godly husband would, can take comfort in this, without being frightened by any fear. Now he wouldn't have to put that in her if the wife wasn't in a difficult situation, if there wasn't anything to fear. If she has a godly husband who is functioning as God says a husband should, there is nothing to fear. The very fact that Peter has to tell her without being frightened by any fear is a reminder she can trust the Lord. Now we lump a lot of things together—physical abuse, emotional abuse. And we've talked about in previous studies, God did not promise us tranquil lives, easy lives, lives without difficulty and trial. And we think emotional abuse, and we read all about it, and I'm not minimizing. Anyone in a role where they have to be submissive to someone and that person is not treating them properly, suffers some kind of emotional pressure. I don't find anywhere in the Bible that is a reason for divorce. You may find that it is beyond your strength and you have to draw from the strength of the Lord.

Physical abuse, and I want to be careful here because we don't have time to speak at any length on this. And I realize ungodly men are always looking for a reason to assert their authority and be sure that their wife is submissive to them no matter how they treat them. And we addressed that in the previous study. But where a husband is unfair, now if he is going to shoot you or stab you with a knife, obviously you have freedom to protect yourself and remove yourself from that situation. Just because a husband at one time may have grabbed your arm and shouldn't have . . . You know, we have to be careful that we're not looking for reasons. I don't want to be in a situation where I have to totally depend upon the Lord and find my courage in Him. I'm not minimizing the difficulty, but I'd say you can follow Sarah's example. She had to deal with a husband who should have been godly but at times didn't act that way, and ended up in the harem as we talked about. She could only entrust herself to the Lord and He was her sufficiency and so that is true for a wife today. But I would say generally those are not reasons for divorce, biblically. You have to draw upon the strength of the Lord in the situation He has placed you.

We'll be touching on this in our study today, not particularly abuse, but these situations. Come back to 1 Corinthians 7. Questions always come up when a person turns from their sin and comes [to] faith in Christ. God sovereignly in His grace draws them to His Son. That brings dramatic and drastic changes in a life. You become a new creature. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold new things have come, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says. What does that mean for my life setting? We need to be careful to understand. That's what Paul is going to address. Now should I quit my job and go into the ministry? No. Does that mean I should consider abstaining from sex because that would defile me now as a holy person? No. Does that mean I should divorce my unbelieving husband? Does that mean if I'm a Gentile I should get circumcised and identify with the Jews as God's chosen nation? No. Does that mean if I'm a slave I should now desire to be free to serve the Lord who has set me free? Not necessarily. These are the kinds of issues that Paul is going to address regarding the Corinthian church.

One of the things that has come up often in the course of my ministry are questions, particularly where men get saved and they think, I'm going to quit my job and go to seminary and go into the ministry. My counsel is don't do that. I think what Paul has to say here is that instruction. That doesn't mean God never calls men to leave their vocation and go and be prepared and go into the ministry. But we need to understand just because you become a believer in Jesus Christ doesn't mean your social position, your physical circumstances should or will change. And in fact Paul is going to say that those situations in which you find yourself when God saves you are the situations where He chose to save you and that's where He wants you. That's the normal situation. And you understand you are there by God's assignment, so don't be thinking you ought to be making a change just because you became a believer. Now that doesn't mean you can never make a change, but your physical situation, your social circumstances do not affect your relationship with the living God. And changing those will not make any difference in your spiritual relationship with God.

Now we want to keep before us the whole of chapter 7 relates to matters connected to marriage. It started out in the first nine verses dealing with matters of sex relating to marriage, and sexual relationship in marriage. Then he talks about the subject of divorce in verses 10-16. In verses 25 to the end of the chapter he's going to talk about virgins and the single life and how that relates to marriage. Verses 17-24 is where we're going to focus our attention. Paul doesn't mention the subject of marriage. In fact, the examples he will use don't directly connect to marriage, being a Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, being a slave or a master. But keep in mind what he says up to this point. Verse 16, he's talking about married life; verses 25ff, being a virgin, having a wife, being divorced from a wife. So verses 17-24 fit in that context and the immediate point that he is making, although it is taken broader by him to show the point as it applies to marriage, is when you get saved that doesn't mean there should be any change in your marriage relationship. If you get saved doesn't mean you should get married because now you're a believer and God said it is not good for man to be alone. Therefore, I better get married. Well, it may be God has gifted you for celibacy. Being married won't change your spiritual relationship with the Lord, nor should it cause you to think about divorce. Well you know if I had known the Lord before I would have never married this person. That may be so, but now that you do know the Lord doesn't mean that you ought to change your marriage situation.

Knowing how to function now that we're believers is important, it's important for us who have been believers for a long time because we are called to give counsel to new believers. And as I mentioned, it has often been the case that men who get saved think, I ought to quit my job and go into the ministry, or I ought to change my thinking now and get into the ministry. I remember talking to a man who was in charge of evaluating students applying to an evangelical seminary. This was not too many years ago. And we had a conversation on the phone about students coming to the seminary, and he said, Gil, from my observation most of the men being trained in our seminary are not gifted to be pastors and really don't belong here. Sometimes we misinterpret, now I know the Lord, I love His truth, all I want to do is study His Word and be involved in telling others about it. Well, that's not a good enough reason to go to seminary, that's not an indication that God has called you into the ministry. Everyone who comes to salvation in Jesus Christ ought to love the Word of God and desire to know more of Him and have a life that is a testimony for Him. Doesn't mean that God won't send some into further training, send some out into the ministry. Understand, my spiritual relationship with the living God has not changed because now I'm a pastor. When I worked at a secular occupation, I had the same spiritual relationship with the living God through faith in Christ as I have now. I did not improve that relationship or take away from it by virtue that I changed my occupation. We need to be careful about that.

Three times in this section Paul gives instructions connected to a command, a present tense command. Verse 17, only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each in this manner, let him walk. And let him walk, he must walk, that's the command, in the context of which God calls him. Verse 20, each man must remain, present imperative, a command, in the condition in which he was called. Verse 24, brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. Now that's a general pattern. . . . Exception and it doesn't mean you can never change your situation. It does mean you should not be looking to change your situation to improve your relationship with God, because that's not what has an impact on that relationship you have with God through faith in Christ.

Let's pick up with verse 17, only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each one in this manner let him walk. The command is let him walk in this manner, as the Lord has assigned, as the Lord has called. Our walk is how we live out our Christian life, how we conduct ourselves now as a child of God. As the Lord has assigned to each one, as He has distributed, delegated, given out the use of spiritual gifts given to each one. He's not talking about spiritual gifts here, he's talking about the situation in which you find yourself when God saves you. Now the example is you may be a Jew, you may be a Gentile, you may be a slave, you may be a master, you may work on an assembly line, you may be a schoolteacher, you may be in the business world. First thing to note is, as the Lord has assigned to each one. That situation in which you are when God calls you is the situation God has assigned to you, distributed to you, given to you. As the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each. The call of God refers to that work of God in bringing us to Himself through faith in Christ, that call that results in our responding in faith.

Turn back to 1 Corinthians 1:9, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. You see that call of God to bring you into fellowship with His Son through faith in His death and resurrection. Down in verse 26, for consider your calling, brethren, there were not many wise, mighty, noble called. So when you come back to chapter 7 verse 17, as God has called each one refers to the context in which you found yourself when God reached out and drew you to Himself, your marriage situation, your social setting, your physical circumstances. That's what God had assigned you. You may have been a schoolteacher in this setting and someone shared the gospel with you and you came to know Christ. Well therefore I ought to quit teaching school now and become a “full time” minister. Well, no. Who do you think assigned you that? You know we sometimes get in our thinking that everything up until the time we were converted is outside God's sovereign plan. But you know, God planned from eternity past to save you and call you to Himself. And at that point in time that was His sovereign divine appointment to call you to Himself at that time. And all the circumstances that brought you to that point were part of His plan. We ought not to think, now I've believed in Him, this has to change. Well there are things in your life that must change—no longer am I going to live in sin. But there are certain things that are just part of where God placed you and that's where He chose to call you, and you were there by His sovereign appointment. He assigned you that position, married to that person, and so on.

We say, now that's a different perspective because now I don't have to think, if only I had trusted the Lord back then. There are things I wish, sin in my life and so on, but basically, oh if only I had trusted the Lord back then I would have not prepared and trained for this kind of position, I wouldn't have married this person, I wouldn't have . . . Well, what does that have to do with anything? I mean the sovereign God called you, and when He called you, you were where He had assigned you to be in that context, that's God's plan. And I belong to Him and my relationship to Him is as rich and full as it can be. Changing my physical circumstances cannot improve that. I realize if you are a drug dealer you're going to have to change occupations. There are certain things obviously that would be inconsistent with being a child of God, but in the general pattern of what Paul is talking about.

And note here, he says at the end of verse 17, and so I direct in all the churches. Paul had to remind the Corinthians of this a number of times. This is not just something that applies to you, and furthermore, if you don't obey these instructions and these commands, you are out of the will of God for all of His churches. This is the only letter of Paul where he reminds them repeatedly of the fact, this is something for all the churches. So when you are out of step with this, you are out of step with God's plan for all His churches.

Back up to chapter 4 verse 17. He is going to send them Timothy, and at the end of verse 17, he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. The truth that I told Timothy to teach you is the same truth that has to be taught in every church. There isn't different truth for the church at Corinth and different truth for the churches of Galatia or the church at Ephesus. 1 Corinthians 11, and this is going to have to do with the role of women. Look at verse 16, but if one is inclined to be contentious we have no other practice nor have the churches of God. This is what must be done in the churches of God. There is no other alternative. The churches of God are under the headship and lordship of Jesus Christ, and there is no other practice for the churches of God except what has been taught here. 1 Corinthians 14:33, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. I mean, God doesn't bring confusion, God doesn't bring turmoil into His churches. That's true for all His churches.

So back in chapter 7 when he says that you are to walk in the position God has assigned to you, that position you were in when His call came to you to salvation, stay with it. He had you there when He called you for a purpose, that's where He wants to use you, that's where you will serve Him best. That doesn't mean you can never change, but it does mean a change won't improve your spiritual condition.

Example—verse 18. Was any man called when he was already circumcised, he is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in circumcision, he is not to become circumcised. Issue here of the Jew and the Gentile. Should a Jew now who turns to Christ think well, I ought not to consider myself a Jew anymore, but a Gentile, because God's work now in salvation focuses on Gentiles and not Jews? And I understand the Mosaic Law came to completion with the coming of Christ, so now I need to deny my Jewishness. In fact Jewish writers of the time indicate that it was a practice in some of the Greek cities for the Jews to undergo a minor surgical process that would undo their circumcision, because in the Greek public bathhouses the men were there naked and business transactions were carried on. Well now the stigma of being identified here, maybe I ought to lose that and become a Gentile in my appearance. And some Gentiles think, well the Jews are God's chosen nation and I could be more what God wants me to be and have a richer relationship with Him if I were identified with the Jews, so I will undergo circumcision. Paul says that doesn't matter. Understand the overwhelming impact of this and particularly on Jews. It doesn't matter, it won't improve your relationship with God to move from your Jewishness, it won't improve your relationship with God to move from your Gentileness.

Verse 19, circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing. So, I mean, if you're circumcised or not, that's not the issue. But when he says don't bother doing it or don't undo it, the point is that if a person did it for another reason this has no impact on your relationship with God. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing; being a Jew, being a Gentile doesn't matter. Now it mattered a great deal in the context of the social conditions of the time, the religious conditions, the ethnicity of the day. This is your national identity. We know how people are proud of their national identity today, we have our roots that we want to go back to. Even here now we don't want to talk about you are an American, you are an African American, you are an Asian American, a German American, and Irish American . . . Fine, but you understand it has nothing to do with your spiritual relationship to the living God, being a Jew or Gentile, nothing to do with it. Circumcision, nothing to do with it. It just doesn't matter. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing.

What matters is keeping the commandments of God. Now pay attention here. Keeping the commandments of God, this kind of expression causes people more confusion than it should. He's just told them circumcision is nothing, but circumcision was clearly a demand and requirement of the Mosaic Law, of which the Ten Commandments are a part. Well now he says what really matters is keeping the commandments of God. But the commandments of the Mosaic Law require circumcision. What do we have here? Maybe he means keep some of the commandments. No. The point is he's not talking about the Mosaic Law, he's talking about the commandments that now Christ is giving to His church. We obey the law of Christ, as the Bible refers to it, not the Law of Moses—the Ten Commandments, the 613 commandments of the Mosaic law. They are not binding on us as Mosaic Law. Some are repeated in the New Testament. They are binding on us. There are commandments here, the command in verse 17—let him walk. That's an imperative in form, that's a command. Down in verse 20, he must remain. That's an imperative, that's a command. These are commands that must be obeyed. What must be obeyed is not the Mosaic Law, but the commands that Christ is giving to His church today. We are not Israel. We are not to try to live under the commands given to the nation Israel before the coming of Christ. We live under the commands given to the church by the Spirit of God. And we have those in our New Testament and we're studying some of them here. It's keeping the commandments of God, obedience to Him, submission to His will is what He wants from us.

Turn over to the book of Galatians 5. Paul makes a very similar statement with a little different ending. Verse 6, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. Same thing he said to the Corinthians. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing. In Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. That has nothing to do with the relationship with God through Christ, but faith working through love. And I live a life founded in my faith in Christ and my ongoing reliance upon Him, and the love that now the Spirit of God produces in my life as I manifest His character. Obey His command. Faith working through love. Look down in chapter 6 verse 15, for neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. That's what has to happen. You have to become a new creature in Christ. If any man is in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold new things have come. So now we serve Him, we obey Him, we live for Him is the instruction. These physical matters are important to the world. They should not shape our thinking as God's people. What matters is our relationship to God through His Son, our obedience to His truth as given in His Word.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 7. He repeats, now, as a bridge. His first command was, as God has assigned to each, as God has called to each, you continue to walk. Present tense, present imperative command—you continue walking the area God assigned to you, the area you were when God called you. Verse 20, he gave the example of Jew and Gentile, then repeats in verse 20. Each man, and as he states this there is an emphasis on each. That's true in verse 17. The word each in the Greek structure here appears first in each of these statements. In verse 17, verse 20 you have it first, and then down in verse 24—each. Emphasizing, this is for each individual person, this truth, this applies to each individual. This is just not a general blanket statement, this is to each individual believer. Each man must remain in that condition, or literally that calling, in which he was called. As I mentioned, you were in a certain setting, in a certain situation. For example, you might have been a Gentile, you might have been a Jew, you might have been a slave, you might have been a master. That's where he's going next. When God's call to you that turned you from your sin and brought you to faith in Christ took place in your life, remain there. That's where God's calling came to you. Why do you think He put you there when He called you? Do you think He didn't know what was going on in your life? Do you think He didn't have anything to do with your life until that point in time? No. It was His sovereign work that brought you to that point, that placed you in that place. Now He called you to Himself, you continue there. Because you became a believer doesn't mean it has to change.

So again, the immediate context he's talking about is marriage. But he uses the example of being a Jew or Gentile. Now he's going to talk about a slave or a master. It gets to be even more difficult. Were you called while a slave? It was estimated in the city of Rome at this time, 85% of the population in the city of Rome were either slaves or had been slaves. That means only 15% of the population in the city of Rome had never been enslaved, either presently or formerly. In the city of Corinth, and they developed these figures from secular writings of the time, it is estimated that 1/3 of the Greek city of Corinth were slaves, 1/3 were individuals who had been slaves but had been set free. So 2/3 of the city of Corinth were either slaves or had been slaves at one time. Were you called while a slave? In other words, did God's call to salvation come to you while you were a slave? Don't worry about it. What do you mean don't worry about it? Doesn't verse 23 say, do not become slaves of men? How can I be a slave of a man and serve the living God? One commentator put it this way, Paul said, don't worry about it, but there were plenty of things to worry about. Slaves were not legally persons, consequently, they had not legal or human rights and were classified as things and tallied as living pieces of property. In other words, you could list our slaves with your household furnishings, they are pieces of property, just living pieces of property. They have no rights. In fact under Roman law slaves weren't even legally married.

Lord, you've set me free, I'll never be able to serve you as I should, I'll never be able to honor you, I'll never be able to have the relationship with you that I need until I am free. Paul says, no, don't worry about it. Were you called when you were a slave? Don't worry about it. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount. Don't worry about tomorrow, don't worry about what you're going to eat, don't worry about what you're going to drink, don't worry about your clothes. You are a slave and God has sovereignly called you Himself, don't worry about it, don't be concerned.

Why? Do you have a better relationship with God if you're not a slave than if you are a slave? No. If you own a company, do you have a greater spiritual relationship with God than someone who sweeps the floor and cleans the toilets? Part of the Lord getting me ready for the ministry, I used to clean in a department store, and part of my job was to clean the toilets. And I would come carrying my biffy kit, as we called them, in at closing time and head to the toilets and scrub and scour and do all of that. You know what? I didn't improve my relationship with the Lord because I now am a pastor. My relationship with the Lord was just as strong, just as deep, just as real when I cleaned toilets as when I preached the truth of the scripture. Why? Because my relationship with the Lord is not shaped by external things. Now we acknowledge that but at the same time we think, if only I had a different job I could really serve the Lord, if I were only in a different kind of marriage situation I could really honor the Lord, if only . . . What are we saying? God is no longer sovereign and He really wasn't . . . . Can't tell you the number who have talked to me and said, well you know I just got saved and I don't want to continue just what I've been doing. Wait a minute, don't make any changes. Really what you need to do is consider, this is where I was when God called me, this is what. He assigned me, so I assume this is where. He wants me to be. Do you think you got there by accident?

No, we believe the Word of God, verse 17 says, the Lord assigned it to each one. You are not an exception. I am not an exception. Now again, it doesn't mean that there can't be changes or won't be changes in our circumstances, but you understand none of these are necessary for improving our relationship with the Lord, strengthening our relationship with the Lord, or any such thing.

Were you called while a slave? Don't worry about it. But if you are able also to become free, rather do that. In other words, this isn't an issue spiritually for you, but that's fine. You don't think well I'm a slave and God saved me when I'm a slave so I can never do anything but be a slave. No, if the opportunity comes up to become free, fine. But you understand when you are free that will not have any impact on your relationship with God. That's not determined by external things. We get the idea that God is like us and He is impressed if He gets the president of the company, but He's not so impressed if He gets the janitor. And then what? I will have more recognition in heaven if I'm a millionaire than if I'm on welfare? I don't know that. That's so, I mean, I'd hate to think that's so. And sometimes we as believers deny what we really claim to believe.

You can become free. Your physical, social circumstances are not an issue. Who you are married to doesn't change your spiritual relationship. Whether you're married or not married doesn't change your spiritual relationship with God. Aren't you glad?

For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is the Lord's slave. In other words, put it in perspective. What happened here when you came to faith in Christ, you slave? Well the Lord set me free and now I belong to Him. That's a technical word, freedman, used for someone who had been set free from slavery and now belonged and had obligation to the one who had freed him. In fact it was considered so important that some slaves who had been made freedmen and thus attached to someone, put it on their tombstone—so-and-so, the freedman of . . . They are really saying now you belong to Christ, you are freed from the slavery of sin and the devil and the flesh. You belong to the Lord, so emphasize your freedom. And you masters who are free, you who are not slaves, remember what happened to you when you trusted Christ. You became the slave of Christ, right? So we are all free and we are all slaves. That's our true spiritual condition. So whether you're a physical slave or a physical freedman, that's not what really matters because you can be a physically free man and be a slave of sin. And you can be a physical slave and a spiritual freedman.

Look over in James, same kind of point with different people. Not slaves, but the rich and the poor. James 1:9, here the contrast is between the rich and the poor. Verse 9, but the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position. So you don't have anything in the world, but in Christ you have everything. And the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like the flowering grass which passes away and you believers who are rich in this world's substance, you realize that's all passing away. The riches of this life are nothing, only what you have in Christ matters. There is a leveling of the ground. That's why in the church we don't recognize titles that the world does. We want to be respectful, we don't want to select out some and say, they have a standing in the world. We have to be careful; otherwise we become like those James is writing about. People of importance come, we say, wouldn't it be wonderful to have them in our church. Anymore wonderful than having someone who is poor and is of no account in the world? You consider, they have a rich relationship with the living God and are His child and are heirs of all that God has promised to those who love Him. And all the blessings that we amass in the physical realm, they're going to be burned up and they are nothing. So in the church we ought to be careful that we have a biblical perspective. The world honors positions, and this is so-and-so and we want them here . . . But in Christ how do you get more important than being a child of the living God? An heir and coheir with Jesus Christ? Who cares whether you have a doctor's degree or you never got past kindergarten? That doesn't have much to do with anything. You can have the person who never got any formal education and God called them to Himself and he has the riches of the knowledge of the living God and is a coheir with Christ. And I think he's less important than someone who has three earned doctor's degrees from three different universities and lives in a mansion? They are nothing.

So back in 1 Corinthians 7. Keep things in proper perspective. You were bought with a price, therefore, do not become slaves of men. You know I can't tell you the number of commentaries of evangelical writers who get lost in all this and tell you why slavery was offensive to God and why God never intended for slavery to take place. And then they have to explain why God didn't directly address the subject. Well one of the evangelical commentaries recently written says, well, God knew that if Christians opposed slavery, the Roman government would have stamped out Christianity before it could get started. I think that's an affront to God. I mean it just turns scripture on its head. Here we just get done being told slavery is nothing, freedom is nothing, but we have to explain away scripture to be politically correct. I'm not saying that slavery wasn't a terrible thing and its abuses. It was in Roman times. We sometimes contrast American slavery with the slavery of biblical times and there were times where things could be different. But as one writer objectively put, basically it was ugly in both places. I mean, you could beat your slave, it was property. You didn't have to give him any rights. I mean, slaves with a good master who happened to be in a good position had it better.

The point is, we're not saying the Bible says we have to have slavery, the Bible regulates slavery. Colossians, Ephesians, they tell slaves how they must conduct themselves, they tell masters how they must conduct themselves. It recognizes there are abuses. Ultimately God will set it straight when we stand before Him.

You were bought with a price, do not become slaves of men. He's not talking about physical slavery. He just said that's nothing. It’s a metaphor. Don't allow yourselves to be shaped and controlled by the world's thinking. We don't have slaves and masters today in our country. We have employees and employers. Some of you may own a business, some of you may be independently wealthy and don't need any income. Some of you live from paycheck to paycheck. Doesn't matter. Don't let your thinking be shaped by these physical, social kinds of situations. The poorest of you sits here rich in Christ, the richest of you sits here with nothing of value but the riches you inherited in Christ. They are just stored up in glory. That's how we look at one another as we see one another in Christ, and the church is not to allow itself and the people in the church to be shaped by the world's thinking. I could be so much more in my service to the Lord if I weren't a slave, if I weren't married, if I had a different spouse, if . . .

Here's where you are. You say, well you understand when I was saved, this happened. Well you understand this is where you are today, I can't change my yesterday. I can't undo what happened last year, last month. The Lord picks me up and takes me on where I am. This is where I am in my relationship with. Him, this is the marriage I am in, the job I have, this is where I am. I may not be married. Well you have an option to get married, to transfer from the single life. That's where he is going. That's a choice. If you're married, you don't have an option, you're stuck. Well that's not good. That's wonderful! Verse 17, as the Lord has assigned to each one. I don't think He wanted me to marry this jerk. Well where do you think He was when it happened? And are you not now His child? Here is where you are.
Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. The point being that getting saved doesn't mean your physical, social, ethnic, whatever circumstances should change. Remain, key here, with God. There has been a dramatic change. That slave is not there now on his own grinding it out for an unjust master, he is there with God, doing his service to the Lord with the strength the Lord can give, the joy the Lord can give, the peace the Lord can give. In that marriage so difficult the person is not there in isolation with aloneness even though they are married because they are married to a person who is difficult in whatever way, because we are there with God in the condition. He said I will never leave you nor forsake you. What more could I want? They are with God, He is my strength, He is my sufficiency, He is the One who enables me, transforms life. And that means, am I in a better, higher, holier position than someone who is in “secular” work. You know a person in a secular position can have as rich and deep and full relationship with God as me or anyone else. Because it is not tied to these physical things. For whatever reason I was removed from the ministry and I begin to be the greeter at Walmart, I'm about to that age, people walk in and say, I remember him, he used to have such a great relationship with the Lord. Let me tell you, when I'm standing there saying welcome, I have just as deep and rich a relationship with the Lord as I have standing before you now. It doesn't depend on that. Aren't you glad? We should praise the Lord every day for the privilege of serving Him where we are. And if He chooses to move me, I wasn't in the ministry when He called me, but He chose to place me in the ministry. Fine. Going into the ministry wasn't to improve my relationship with Him, changing jobs is not to improve my relationship with Him. These are nothing. We get all worried because the world worries about these things, but we don't need to be worried about them. Our God is sovereign, He does the assigning, He does the calling and by His grace changes can come and we think, this job would be an improvement for me and I'm going to take it. I don't take it because it is going to improve my relationship with the Lord. It may be a better job and I think I'd like to have this job because it will give me a better schedule, I will have more time to be with believers, I can attend a Bible study. Yes, that's a benefit, but understand in whatever the most restrictive relationship, being a slave, I can have the richest relationship with the living God. My marriage, my job, my nationality, all these things, I'm glad my relationship with the Lord doesn't depend upon external things, physical things, social things. It depends on the God who loved me and gave His Son to die for me.

Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for the richness of your truth. We wonder and are in awe at the salvation that you have provided for us in Christ. Lord, the marvelous way that you have worked in our lives to draw us to yourself. Circumstances, situations in which we found ourselves and in which we find ourselves today, what a blessing it is to know that you are sovereign over it all. These affairs of this life, you have assigned us positions, responsibility, places and yet what matters is our relationship with you. Lord, sometimes we allow the world to affect our thinking, we become frustrated, irritable, discontent. We worry about things that we should not worry about. Thank you, Lord, for the peace, the contentment, the joy that can be ours in a difficult marriage, the frustrations of the single life, in unpleasant work conditions. Lord, our relationship with you is not conditioned or determined by external things. Thank you for the greatness of your love for us, the sufficiency of your provision for us in whatever our situation, whatever our circumstance. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.